Transparent Fall
by abstrusewriter
Summary: How can Harry be normal when he has a vampire constantly breathing down his neck spouting things about being his mate and being destined together? Full Summary inside. AU. Slash.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: The following is not mine, simply the plot and events that take place; anything that you find remotely familiar is probably not mine, and as such I will not be taken accountable for claiming that it is, thank-you.

Summary: Follow Harry Potter and his mentor Severus Snape, wizards who are trying to escape the grasps of a rather dark man, on a journey that is seemingly unforgettable. The two head to Forks, promising each other that they can _try_ to be somewhat normal and live peacefully. But how can Harry be normal when he has a vampire constantly breathing down his neck spouting things about being his mate and being destined together? **AU**.

Warnings: Strong language, mature sexual content, violence and blood, homosexuality, and various other things that I will promise to warn you about later on as the story develops.

Author's Note: Hello there, welcome to my attempt at a story that is completely out of my comfort zone. Please, tell me your opinions and thoughts once you've finished reading. I can't guarantee that it's going to be fantastic nor perfect; but it's an attempt and I would really adore it if you told me what you think. Things will not follow either of the original books plots; I am simply using the character and settings to mend into my own work of art. I am not perfect at grammar, and I tend to have an odd style of writing. Please, point out my mistakes so that I can make note not to make them in the future. If you do not like my story, you are free to tell me, I take kindly to criticism; perhaps I can use your words as a way to make my story better. I might add more to this note at the end of the story. If you have any questions about how I am doing things please ask them, and I will answer in the next chapter. I will only write another chapter if I feel enough people like this story and it is worthy enough.

**Transparent Fall**: Chapter One

"I've told you how much I despise muggle transportation, right?" Severus Snape asked as he used his pale hands to brush off the front of his dark coat. There was a chuckle from the shorter figure beside him as they exited the horrible taxi. "Americans are the worst when it comes to said transportation too,"

"Oh, Sev', don't be too harsh, I rather like Americans, they mean well," added in the smaller of the two as the cab drove off behind them, leaving them to stare at the large home they'd be staying at for quite some time, "Besides, you're going to have to get used to them, we're going to be spending a lot of time with them now that we're in Forks, Washington,"

Snape scoffed, "Perhaps you're right, Potter, but I think it'd be a little more tolerable if the weather weren't exactly like London's, if not worse,"

"I think I agree with you on that note," the dark figures blended with the surrounding darkness. They found it more their style to arrive to their new home in their usual setting. The two glanced to their lovely new home. It wasn't too large, but big enough for the two of them. Harry found himself fond of the idea of their home being secluded and surrounded by tall trees and bushes.

He sniffed the air and smelled pine and fresh water, a scent he could live with happily. The house was white, and stood two stories tall, only the moon giving it a glow. The shorter man found the rose bushes on either side of a gravel walkway to be his favorite thing about the home. The navy blue window shutters gave a traditional look, and Harry prayed that the flooring inside was that of wooden floors and not carpet. Carpet was nice, but Harry found that walking along mahogany wood to be soothing (which thankfully, that's exactly what the flooring was on the inside, how _heavenly_).

"I certainly hope we aren't going to spend the rest of the night standing outside, Potter," Snape drawled from the emerald eyed companion beside him, "I think we should go see how well furnished this home truly is,"

Harry shrugged, grabbing his only case of luggage and stepping onto the gravel path, "No one said you had to wait for me to lead the way, Severus, come along then let us settle in, we've got a busy week ahead of us, we're going to need a bit of rest after that long flight,"

Severus gave a grunt from behind Harry as they entered the home.

oOoOoOo

"Alice," Jasper whispered beside his loved one as they lay together staring at the ceiling later that night, for obvious reason that they couldn't sleep, his head turned at the wave of emotion he felt from his mate. He brushed a cold hand over her marble cheek in concern and glanced into her topaz eyes when she looked over to him, "What did you see?"

"I'm scared," she uttered back, her lips moving at an abnormal speed. She wrapped her arms around Jasper and buried her face into his neck, the tips of his golden hair brushing against her nose as she gave an unneeded inhale, "I just saw Edward dying,"

Jasper's eyes widened and he pulled away, "What did you just say?"

Alice seemed troubled now, and Jasper did his best to wash a wave of comfort over to her to calm her nerves as good as he could at the moment, it didn't help that his own emotions were screaming at him, his mate just told him that his brother was going to die, that's not something a vampire would be fond of hearing. Alice spoke, her voice quiet enough so that no one else in the home would hear her; she even focused on singing children's bedtime songs so that she wouldn't risk Edward reading her mind, "I said I saw Edward dying and I couldn't save him, Jasper, I couldn't save him!"

"Hush now," Jasper said softly as he pulled the pixie-like vampire closely to him once more, focusing more on using his ability to calm her down so she wouldn't alarm the rest of the family, "Your visions can change, Alice, you know that. Based on certain decisions and choices, they can change,"

The short haired woman shook her head though, and shifted so that she were sitting on the bed, and Jasper followed her actions as he sat across from her doing his best to place his hands onto her without having to feel the intensity of emotion that Alice currently felt, "I can't see any other outcome though, Jazz."

"There was to be another outcome, Alice, perhaps it just involves someone that you can't see," Jasper tried, hoping his suggestion might have a little truth behind it. He watched as Alice made an unneeded swallow and gave a quivering pout,

"You mean like a shifter?" she hoped.

The blond vampire nodded, "Yeah, that's a possibility, but for now you need to tell me everything you saw, understand me? I need to know every last detail, and its best you don't say anything at the moment to the rest of the family, do you understand?"

"What about Edward, how are we going to keep it from him?" Alice asked, blinking as worry flooded her body once more.

"Try your best to block it from him, do you understand me?"

She nodded, and Jasper smiled and embraced the petite other,

"Now, about this vision, tell me what you saw, and when this is supposed to happen…"

_They were standing, being held back by an unknown force that Alice found herself desperately trying to get through. She was screaming, her sharp fangs flashing carelessly as she clawed and hit at the barrier refraining her from running to help her struggling brother whom was currently being attacked by unknown figures, who seemed large in size, and a swiping sound echoed the area, and the sun seemed to be covered every so often, leaving the sun only to glimmer through as a deep ray of red and orange creating the trees to glow around them and the grass to sparkle as they reflected the colored glare of the large ball of gas._

"_Edward!" Alice found herself screaming, and she could hear other voices speaking to her, yelling at her, but she kept herself focused on her brother. The voices didn't matter, and they remained muffled, hidden as a sound of white noise as she watched her brother fall to his knees and scream out, his mouth hung open with a silence that made Alice fall back from the barrier holding her and fall to her rear. The next part happened in what appeared as slow motion as her vision blacked for a brief moment and then vision flooded back and her brother's head was severed from his body and he floated to the ground in black ash. She screamed, feeling arms grabbing her and pulling her back as she tried to crawl for her death brother, "Edward!"_

Jasper took it all in, listening intently to the other vampire as she whimpered the story's details to the best of her ability, and gave a human sigh, "So you haven't a clue what those figures were, _who_ they were?"

"No," Alice choked out, "but Jasper they were real, they were there; whatever it is _they_ are they're coming, and they're coming soon and we won't be able to stop it,"

"We can leave, we can move back to Alaska for a bit, can't we?" Jasper supplied, a brow rising in curiosity, wouldn't that be a decision that could rescue Edward, if they left? "We can tell the others what you saw; we can prevent this some way or another, can't we?"

Alice shook her head, another whimper coming from her, "But we can't, there's something else,"

The ex-soldier looked with exasperation, _there was more?_ "What is it…?"

"If we leave, Edward won't ever be able to meet his mate," she told him, "If we leave we pass up the opportunity of Edward finally finding someone. He won't be alone anymore Jasper… and this, this person means so much to all of us in the future, we can't leave that, we can't leave _him_,"

"You saw Edward's mate?" Jasper asked as his eyes widened brightly, "When do we meet him…?"

Alice avoided eye contact as she played with the hem of her shirt, "We meet him within a few weeks, and then we go to school with him, and I think a bit after that Edward… he… dies,"

"So we can leave before that, but after he meets his mate,"

"No," Alice says, freezing as her mind wandered a few visions, "Edward doesn't allow us, there's a reason he won't leave and I think it's linked to the things that kill him, nothing I try can save him, nothing I do can make him change his mind. Edward stays to his own death and we sit there and watch him, Jazz, we watch him die,"

"So then what do we do…?"

"I don't know, but right now we can only hope for the best, right? We have a few good happy moments left, and maybe something happens; the future can change right? It's not too late for other decisions to be made, we can still save him… we can try, we can… still… _try_,"

Jasper nodded and touched his mate, sending a wave of calmness through her, "Alright, I'll try my hardest to help along the way; I'll do all that I can for _you_ and Edward. But we can't let the others know, no matter what, do you understand Alice? We can't put our worry onto everyone else,"

"I know," Alice whispered as they laid themselves back down onto the large bed, "It's just going to be so hard to look at him without wanting to tell him, without wanting to stop him from doing something stupid, without seeing him slip from my reach. It's going to be so hard,"

"I'm here to help you through it, we're going to solve this, I promise, we're going to do all that we can Alice, so promise me you won't worry about it that much, alright?" Jasper said, knowing it were possible that his promise was empty, but he hoped it wasn't, it couldn't be. He was going to try his hardest to prevent his brother from death, "Besides, we have something to look forward to,"

"What's what?"

"This new addition that you say will be a part of the family," Jasper grinned, "What's he like?"

Alice suddenly jumped with excitement, "Oh Jasper, he's so brilliant! At first he comes off as a bit of a jerk but he's really charming and fun, and he likes to go shopping with me and he's super caring and, and, and—"

Jasper nodded, ushering her along to pull her thoughts away from her darker visions of the future, "And? What's his name, is he a vampire then?"

"It's Harry," Alice said with awe, "Harry Potter… and I'm not really sure what he is,"

"You're not sure what he is," Jasper was now completely confused, how could she not know what she was, "I don't know, I can't be sure if he's human or not, he's strange Jazz, and so is the man he's staying with,"

"When does he arrive here then?"

Alice blinked and smiled, "He already has, about an hour ago,"

"Oh. So, what's his name again?"

"Harry, Harry Potter," she chirped, and Jasper felt accomplished that he calmed his mate down and made her happy once more as she rambled on about several different things that were to come of the family and this new guy. He had to admit, he too was rather excited to meet the new fellow, and to find out the various secrets that he knew the man would have. He was anxious to see his brother happy and no longer basking in the depression of being alone anymore.

But, Jasper also couldn't shake what was eating at the back of his mind, the dark side to what awaited them in the future.

* * *

To be continued, please tell me what you think, and I promise chapters from here on out will be much longer and the plot won't be as cliche as you think it might be.

x


	2. Chapter 2

**_Apologies in advanced for any grammatically incorrect fragments and sentences, I don't think spelling should be a problem, but I did read the story over three additional times and as a human I'm bound to have missed quite a few mistakes. Sorry, though, if it throws off the reading experience for you. I will improve more in the future, x  
_**

**Transparent Fall: **Chapter Two

Severus Snape would openly tell you that he only kept the boy close to his side because of Lily Potter before he'd willingly admit that he cared for Harry. Seventeen years previous, when he found Lily on the floor lifeless, his life crumbled and he truly adapted an even greater hatred for the world that night. This was all until he softly placed Lily's body back to the floor and turned to the crying child in the crib. Their eyes met, and the baby's screams ceased as they looked to each other. Severus could see all of that sodding Gryffindor James, no resemblance to Lily whatsoever… until of course he looked a little closer. His breath hitched and he stood from his knees to make his way over to Harry, picking him up and holding him out from himself to look into his eyes. _Green_. He had Lily's eyes, and that was all he needed.

He knew it was his responsibility to guide the boy into the right direction, to help him at any possible cost because he owed that to Lily. He even owed it to James. Even so, now, present day, the boy worked on every nerve Severus had left. Nagging him about stupid questions like he always had, and even when Severus answered him the blithering idiot still wouldn't understand a damned thing. It was astonishing that Harry even came from Lily, he certainly got his intelligence from his just as stupid father.

"Severus, I was getting to thinking last night," Harry said as he skipped into the kitchen where Severus was busy sipping at tea and thinking of past events as he always did.

Snape scoffed, "What did I tell you about that, you don't do well then you _think_."

"Right," Harry rolled his eyes at Severus' poor attempt at insulting him, and he poured himself a cup of tea to sit across from the elder man at the wooden table, "There's a chemistry opening at the high school just a few miles away from here, would that be something you'd be interested in?"

"I teach with potions, Potter, not with muggle science-kits," scoffed the dark man.

"Look, you said that we'd have to appear as _normal_ as possible if this was going to work out. I think you'd be surprised at how similar both potions and muggle chemistry is. I'm thinking about enrolling and becoming a student, I'd be in my last year, but it's a start to this _new_ life, don't you agree?"

They engaged in an intense stare, as if Severus were testing the teenager across from him, "How do you propose I go about this, Potter? I haven't got any proof that I've studied, nor had muggle schooling,"

"We're wizards, Sev', we don't need to worry about little things like that. Just flick your wand and you're good," Harry sighed when Severus' hard look stayed, "Look, I know this isn't something you were thinking of doing when we got here but it might help us out fairly well, don't you think? I'm ready to just _live_, without worries or fear. Aren't you tired of being forced to a life behind the walls of a home that isn't even a _home?_"

"Maybe, I'll think about it," Severus mumbled and grabbed the muggle newspaper lying beside his cup of tea and pulling it up in front of his face to avoid the concentrated and determined look of his student across from him. He didn't bother reading the paper; he simply lost himself in memories once more as Harry stood with a defeated sigh and left the room.

"_Sevvy, my shirt feels weird," a five year old Harry exclaimed as he scampered into the study of the darkly dressed Slytherin, "I dun wike it, it itches," _

_The professor turned from the cauldron and looked down at the raven haired boy with a raised brow and a curious expression, "What did I tell you about calling me that? And of course it feels weird, you've got it on backwards and it's inside out."_

"_Ohh," the small boy said with a pout and walked closer to the only adult figure he had in his life, "Can you help me, pwease?" _

"_You're going to need to learn how to dress yourself one day, Harry, you know this," Severus scolded and hard eyes looked into big and bright emerald eyes that were hopeful for a bit of help. The potions teacher sighed and kneeled on one knee to help the boy fix his shirt, "Fine, I'll help you this one time, but you're going to need to learn that the tag goes on the inside, understand?"_

"_Otay," Harry nodded with a chipper smile, "Thank-you, Sev'," _

"_I told you not to call me that," he scolded once more with a now irate expression as he helped the young boy with his shirt and sent him on his way warning him not to disturb him while he were in his study and busy doing 'adult things'. _

The tall and large-nosed professor also wouldn't admit that thinking of such memories made the corner of his lips twitch into a small smile. He loved the Potter boy, as a son-type-of-way, and he'd make the unbreakable vow over and over again if it meant protecting the younger wizard from any type of harm. That had actually been the reason they came to America.

Severus sighed and slapped the newspaper back onto the table and rested his elbows on the mahogany top, his forehead now resting along the bent knuckles of his hand. He knew he'd do it, he didn't have a choice. He was going to apply for this silly chemistry teacher employment for the simple reason that Harry _wanted_ him to. He groaned and stood from the table and entered through the arched doorway that lead to their living room. There hadn't been much, but the brown leather sofa and the large muggle television had been enough, "Fine."

Harry looked over his shoulder from sitting on the couch to Severus, a knowing smile on his face as his mentor crossed his arms and continued to scowl at him, "Fine, as in…?"

"As in I'll try for the bloody job," Severus muttered, speaking in a tone that appeared to be mocking Harry's intelligence, but the boy knew that was quite the opposite, "Are you happy now?"

"Very, thank-you, Sev'…" the emerald eyed boy said softly, "We can go down to the school tomorrow morning,"

"Sounds lovely," Snape muttered and turned back into the kitchen.

The sound of the television entered the elder man's ears as Harry changed the channel to a much louder one than the previous.

_"Severus... Severus, will you just stop for a minute!" Harry cried, looking baffled and terrified as he watched his teacher rush around the home grabbing anything that he felt fit to bring with him on this silly 'adventure' that he rambled on about. Harry, knowing professor Snape better than anyone, knew this wasn't how Severus acted. No, Severus was straight, cool, very collected, and spoke in a manner of least impatiences and more with calmed intelligence. Harry had come in from flying, it had been just a month after his sixth year at Hogwarts had ended. There was only one time Harry had seen Snape so undone and on the verge of snapping; and that was in fourth year- when he nearly escaped the grasps of Voldemort during the Triwizard Tournaments, "Sev', what's going on," _

_"Don't-" Snape snapped, whirling on the young boy with his finger raised as he threw a clock (which Harry was sure they didn't need) into one of his very expensive trunks, "Don't you dare speak to me in that- that voice!"_

_Harry knew. If Severus hated anything, it was knowing someone had cared and been worried about him, which Harry had always been. You see, Harry grew up learning that his mother and father had been killed at the hands of a sinister man which should-not-be-named, and who was there for him when he'd fallen and scraped his knees? Severus. Though the man was harsh, he still handled his mangled knee with care and ease, "I'm sorry," Harry whispered now, not bothering to hide what Snape begged him to, "But you're acting completely out of character, Merlin's sake, what has gotten into you? You're running the house like a mad-man," _

_"I explained to you already, we have to leave for America," Severus said, turning to break eye contact and throw a few more things they didn't need into the trunk. Harry gazed at his distraught teacher and fatherly figure, "Please, Harry, just trust me. When I tell you to trust me, you _trust_ me- understand?" _

_Harry blinked and nodded. Severus was right, no matter what, he would trust him. He would trust him Severus with his life and more, "When do we leave?" _

_"Tonight, we'll be heading to New York to speak with a friend of mine, and then we'll be going to Forks, Washington." The potions professor stilled for a moment, his shoulders straightening, "Let's try to be _normal,_ for your sake," _

_"Okay... I'll go pack," and the raven-haired boy did just that. He packed. Because Severus _wanted _him to._

_Cullen's residence_

"We're getting a new teacher," Alice said as she skipped into the kitchen where Esme had been preparing baked goods for a few of Carlisle's co-workers at the hospital for the annual 'office' party they were going to be having, "He's an odd man,"

"What did I tell you about judging, Alice?" Esme asked kindly, a smile on her face as she rolled the dough between her marbled hands; flour scattered all around the kitchen and in certain strands of the vampire's beautifully still hair. Alice smiled and leaned against the counter with a pleasant expression as she watched her mother do the thing she loved best; cooking.

"Not to," the short vampire replied, dashing to the other side of the room at an unnatural speed. She stood next to her mother, eyes fixated on the beaten dough, "He's going to be the new chemistry teacher, Edward and I will have him,"

Esme frowned, "What happened to the previous chemistry teacher…?"

"He died, car accident," Alice said, as if it were a normal thing to say to another person. But they were vampires; death hadn't affected them like it would have any other student of Fork's High School, "The new teacher likes to be called Professor Snape. Don't you think Snape is such an odd name?"

"We've come across worse," Rosalie mumbled as she walked into the kitchen after jogging down the steps, her mate, Emmett, not far behind her, "I still don't understand why you're wasting your time even cooking those blasted sweets. They smell horrid,"

Esme gave a soft laugh as she placed the sheet of rolled out dough into the oven, "So, why does this chemistry teacher matter so much to you, Alice?"

"Oh, he doesn't mean that much really," Alice said, trying her best not to relate the man to Edward's mate so not to risk the other vampire from finding out through her thoughts. She instantly calmed herself when she remembered the Jasper and Edward went out to feed just a bit ago and hadn't come back yet, "Only that he knows we're vampires,"

The way she said it seemed like it hadn't mattered at all, but Esme dropped the rolling-pin in her hand and turned to Alice with a serious expression, Rosalie and Emmett did the same, "What did you just say?"

"He knows we're vampires," Alice said once more, shrugging in response as if, _once again_, it hadn't truly mattered that a human knew of their existence and true selves, "but it's okay, because he keeps it a secret. He's not too bad, even if he scares half of his students into tears,"

"Wait," Emmett said, holding his hand out in a 'stop, slow down a minute' sort of manner, "He _knows_? He knows we're vampires... How the hell does he know, how does he find out, when does he find out?" the questions came at her in a blaze of flames, so fast that even her own supernatural hearing couldn't quite unravel his words. She gave him an odd look before speaking to him, answering all that they needed to know as not to upset her family any farther,

"Calm down, Emmett, I already said it's alright. He won't tell anyone, except for his son," Alice wanted to smile, knowing all too well just who his _'son'_ had been, "I don't know how, he just _knows_ when he first meets Edward and I in class, don't ask me how he found out because I don't know. We didn't do anything remotely suspicious to him... not that I know of,"

"We should probably warn your father, and brothers," Esme says quickly, exiting to the kitchen leaving her baked goods behind to warn her husband of the newcomers, even though the man would have probably heard the whole conversation from one floor up already. Just as she left Edward and Jasper entered the home. Alice went to greet her mate, but before she reached them she stopped at what she saw.

Edward was upset, _no_, much more than upset. He was angry, and Jasper looked so conflicted (Alice concluded that the emotions floating from Edward were painful enough rather than the cold and unforgiving look that Edward shot at the two of them). Edward's grimace worried Alice, _what happened?_ she thought, _he couldn't have found out, could he? Would he be angry that we didn't tell h__im..._

Jasper tried to stop Edward by placing his hand on his shoulder, he attempted to speak, "Edward, just wait a minute,"

Alice's eyes widened when her bronze haired brother turned sharply on Jasper and harshly shoved the other away , "You were going to keep it a secret from me, exactly when were you planning on telling me? My death day certainly isn't something I should be kept in the dark from, is it?"

"Edward, we didn't—"

"No, don't bother trying to make up an excuse," Edward turned and stopped himself from running into Alice, he simply looked down at her with narrowed eyes, "I trusted you to come to me if you ever saw something like this, but instead you blocked it away from me,"

"Edward I was trying to help—" Alice squeaked, afraid that she made her brother hurt beyond forgiveness now.

"Don't. Just don't," the male vampire was already up and in his room before the pixie vampire had the chance to say anything else to him.

Emmett and Rosalie exchanged looks and stepped closer to their mated brother and sister, the blond beauty raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms, "Does anyone mind explaining to us exactly what just happened?"

Alice looked to Jasper with hurt eyes, wondering the same thing, "You promised not to let him know...?"

"He _knew_, Alice, he knew I was hiding something from him. We got into a fight over it and I accidentally let it slip, I didn't mean to think about it; but when another vampire has his hands threateningly around your throat you can't really focus on keeping him from your mind, now can you?"

"Wait, you saw something didn't you?" Rosalie asked, stepping in front of her sister now, placing hands on her shoulder and tilting her own head down to make eye-to-eye contact, "What did you see?" her expression and tone of voice was hardly pleasant, but demanding.

"She saw Edward dying," Jasper answered for her. It came out so bluntly that it took a few moments to register.

"What!" Emmett said loudly, "You saw Edward's death and didn't tell the rest of the family? Alice, that's something that you shouldn't keep from us,"

Alice glares, and retorts, "Don't you think I realize that by now, Emmett?"

Rosalie looked scared, only slightly, "Your visions aren't always solid though, right? There's a chance this might not even happen… We have to tell Esme and Carlisle,"

"Don't worry, we heard from upstairs," Carlisle said as he walked humanly down the stairs with his wife, "Alice, we're highly disappointed, you know you can come to your mother and I with any of your problems, you didn't need to keep this from us…"

Alice whimpered, and Jasper was by her side in the blink of an eye, wrapping his arms around her cold and hard body and pulling her against his chest sending waves of comfort through her. She spoke, "I just wanted him to be happy, I didn't know it would be like this. I wanted him to meet Harry and I wanted him to finally be loved. I didn't know it would end up like this, I didn't want him to worry nor have anyone else worry,"

"Who the hell is _Harry_?" Emmett asked, earning a slap to the chest by the back of his mate's hand and a scolding look. The rest of the family looked curiously, wanting to know the same thing.

Jasper spoke for her, "It's Edward's mate, and they meet this school year,"

Esme gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. Edward was finally going to have a mate? Her thoughts instantly left the worries of her child's death, "Oh, that's fantastic, what is he like?"

"Darling, we're straying from what's truly important here," Carlisle murmured and placed a hand on his mate's shoulder and looked up to where Alice and Jasper were standing, "Are we able to prevent this vision? Where and when does it happen?"

"Awhile after he meets Harry, but when he meets Harry he won't be able to leave because of whatever situation that he's in…" Alice whispered, pulling away from Jasper feeling better now that he used his ability to calm her down and make her feel a bit better. She looked up to her taller mate, "Jazz… does he know about Harry too…?"

"No… but I have a feeling he does now," Jasper said, feeling the intense emotion that came from upstairs in Edward's room. His face scrunched just a bit when he felt waves of hurt, dishonesty, betrayal, false adoration, hope, disaster, and some odd form of love. Probably love that Edward already felt for his mate, Jasper couldn't tell over the amount of other emotions coming from the vampire so he didn't bother to think hard about it.

Carlisle sighed and sat down on the white plush couch in the living room that they entered. He rubbed his face in thought; thinking of many ways that they could somehow avoid the situation of Edward's possible future. Esme sat beside her husband, rubbing his back in a form of comfort as she too worried desperately for her son's well-being.

Rosalie was pacing back and forth in front of Emmett as he stood leaning with his back against the glass wall of the room, which had been nearly all of the walls of the home anyway. Alice was busy being calmed by Jasper who sat next to her on a love-seat just across from the larger sofa that Esme and Carlisle were on. Their thoughts must have been haunting Edward, and they had a feeling that the other probably ran out through the wooded area around their home to keep his mind clear of their dreadful thoughts.

"We're going to have to leave, regardless of Edward's mate, he's going to have to accept that, he can come back for his mate once the time of his death has passed," Carlisle said with a forced sigh that appeared far too human, his cold breath flowing through the knuckles of his hand, which had been pressed against his lips in thought.

Alice froze as a vision flashed across her mind, "No. He won't allow it, he'll refuse, and if we force him he'll hate us and never want to speak to us again,"

Esme leaned forward, "Do you know why Edward's mate can't leave…?"

Alice shook her head, "Only that he's hiding from something, from _someone_."

"Is he the son of this professor that you were telling us about earlier?" Rosalie asked, and Alice nodded.

Jasper remembered something, "He isn't human. Edward's mate I mean, Alice had told me a few nights ago that this Harry guy wasn't human, would that mean that his father weren't human too?"

"Very well could be," Carlisle said as his brows scrunched in thought, "He also, apparently, figures out that we're vampires. So whatever they are, they'd need to be very familiar with what vampires are, we're going to need to speak with them as soon as we possibly can in hopes of saving Edward,"

"I can't believe this," Rosalie shouted, "Everything was going perfect until this damned _'mate'_ had to come into the picture. I bet this little brat is the reason behind Edward's death in the first place—"

"Please don't speak ill of Harry," Alice suddenly said, looking up to her sister with pleading eyes. The whole family gaped at her, had she already formed a liking to the future mate of Edward? She added, "I can promise that you'll love him, he likes to go shopping and he loves you quite a lot, in fact, he admires you. So please, don't speak badly of him,"

"Whatever. Just figure out the game plan, we obviously need to talk to these _whatever they are_, so when do we plan on doing that?" Rosalie scoffed, trying her hardest not to think about Edward's mate at the moment and their future friendship that Alice claims they'll have. _Admire? He better admire me, I'm beautiful,_ she thought with a scowl that didn't exactly help her current look. Emmett pushed from the wall he was leaning on and wrapped his arms around the blonde's waist.

While they thought of their situation, Edward had been busy keeping himself away from their thoughts. He punched the tree beside him, and found himself plopping down and sitting against the now abused looking tree. His hands rested in his wild hair as he tried to shake the images of what he saw in both Jasper and Alice's minds. First, it was the death part that bothered him, but then while he was busy letting himself calm down in his room visions and thoughts flooded his mind from the rest of the family downstairs thinking about some boy named Harry, and assumingly being his mate.

The ninety-something year old vampire let out a frustrated growl and brought his arm down to punch to tree behind him again. _Damn it all, damn it all to fucking hell_, he thought angrily. A mate, he dies because he's too selfish to finally have love and doesn't want to leave his mate, really, how pathetic can you truly get? When he heard Jasper say it aloud that Harry was his mate and that he was finally going to not be alone he broke down. Finally, after all of this waiting and loneliness he was _finally_ going to find the love of his life; and death had to take that all away from him? It sucked (and no pun intended on that one either).

"Everything is so… so… fucked," Edward whispered to the empty air as he breathed unneeded air. He didn't know what to think, he didn't know how to act. Only that the main importance was finding his mate now and meeting him, finally meeting whomever it was that could (or already, actually) claimed his heart. Death didn't matter to him. He'd rather die than to never meet his mate and live with constant wonder of whom this mate of his actually is.

When life was a dick to you, you were allowed to hate it, and that's exactly what Edward did, he _hated_ it more so now than ever before had he thought possible. Life was a bitch how loved to deliver torment and kick the shit out of your own contentment. Fuck it, seriously. Fuck it. He groaned and punched the tree behind him once more, not caring that he had now put several indents on the poor thing.

oOoOoOo

"You'll be fine, I promise," Harry said reassuringly as he smiled up at Snape, bringing his hands up to the taller man and brushing his hair with his fingers to make it appear a bit more presentable than it actually had been, "Just go in there and mumble things that you would about chemicals and ingredients and cast a small harmless spell and you're good. Don't forget to enroll me as you _son_, so that it's a bit more realistic, okay? I'm going to try and find a place to buy food around here, don't try to worry about me,"

Severus scoffed, "Who would worry about the likes of you, Potter?"

"Love you too, Sev'," Harry said happily as Snape left the house.

_He'll never learn to stop calling me that, will he?_ mutters the potions teacher as he walks down the gravel walkway and looks side-to-side for any stray wanderers and apparates from the edge of the home's yard.

_I'll never stop calling you that, Severus, so just accept it already,_ Harry also thought with a smirk, knowing all too well that Severus was cursing him in his mind at the little name that Harry never bothered to stop calling the older man. He turned from the door and ran up to his room, which had been decorated to match it dorm back at Hogwarts, his Gryffindor colors showing proudly. He rummaged through his drawers, pulling out a decent outfit of muggle clothes that Severus bought him not that long ago. He slipped the nicely fitting black shirt over his head, and slipped on the dark blue jeans that hung from his hips perfectly.

"Alright, girl, I'll be back later, maybe we can go out later tonight when it's dark and you can stretch your wings, I'll have to ask Sev' though, you know how paranoid he gets about things," Harry said softly to his owl, Hedwig, and gave her a treat through the wage she perched in. He smiled, grabbed his bag (which had been a simple backpack that he used for many crucial items) and left the room, leaving the house and walking towards the town; hoping to find some sort of market so that he could stock his and Severus' new home with a bit more food than they had at the moment.

It was forty-five minute walk but he arrived to the busy town of Forks, and smiled when luck was on his side and he only needed to walk an extra ten minutes to arrive at a small mart, which seemed to be good enough for him to grab a few needs that him and Severus would need until Severus' newly ordered car from Seattle arrived and they could spend less time _wasting_ and get things done quicker and easier. He jogged into the store and found himself curious as to just how different things were here in America compared to England. He wandered through the different aisles, forgetting his true purpose and grabbing all sorts of things to read the backs of them and examine the pictures. Things weren't so different, a lot of the things had been generic brands that were created in Seattle and shipped out here to no-man's-land.

And of course, the air-headed wizard wasn't paying attention to his surroundings and bumped into another person. He quickly looked to the stranger and apologized, "I'm terribly sorry about that, I hadn't been paying attention to where I was going and—"

"Chill, it's perfectly fine, I've bumped into people before," the girl replied, smiling kindly down at the boy she wasn't familiar with, "You must be new here, I haven't exactly seen you around, and when you live here faces are usually familiar,"

Harry smiled back and nodded hurriedly, "I just moved here a few days ago with my father, he's applying to be the new chemistry teacher down at the high school. Sorry, where are my manners? I'm Harry, and you might be…?"

"Oh, that's cool. We're all still a bit down because of the last teacher. Is your dad cool…?" the girl asked and then laughed a bit, "Sorry, I must be just as rude, my name's Bella, Bella Swan. I just moved in last year to live with my dad, finishing the last year of high school coming up, will you be attending Forks High..?"

Harry chuckled and scratched his head, "My dad, cool? He's, well, you'll have to find out for yourself. I'm finishing up my last year too, so there's a possibility you and I might have some classes together, it's nice to meet you Bella,"

"I can show you around and such when the year starts, even though it's not big enough to get lost, that's nearly impossible with how small this town is. I gotta warn you though; you're going to be the big news of the school for a while because you're new," the girl, Bella, went on to explain. Harry took time to examine her looks, she was rather pretty. She reminded him somewhat of Hermione—but he could tell she didn't have much brains as his bookworm friend did. He did admire how pretty she was though, and smiled as she spoke; maybe having a friend here wouldn't be a bad idea.

"Sounds fun," Harry joked, friendly sarcasm dripping from his tone, "Hey, Bella, you wouldn't mind helping be out with something would you?"

"No, what d'you need?" she asked in return, her eyes looking at the slightly shorter teenager in slight curiosity.

Harry nervously laughed, "I haven't got the first clue about American money, mind helping me shop for a few things? I promise to be out of your hair as soon as possible, promise,"

"Sure! I've got a bit of shopping to do too, so we can just do it together," she said happily, "American money is simple, here, I'll show you,"

And so she did, she helped him grab all that she believed the other teenager would need, and she talked about various things as she did so. Harry listened of course, she talked a lot, and Harry decided that being around her for extreme period of time would probably drive anyone insane. Harry learned a bit about the girl while they shopped with each other.

A few important things about her, Harry noted, that her father had been the town sheriff, she had a boyfriend named Jacob Black (he took a moment to jokingly ask if he was related to any Blacks in London), she hated spinach, mashed potatoes, and popcorn (something about little pieces getting stuck in your teeth, Harry hadn't been paying much attention by then).

They left the grocery store, Harry had two bags for each hand and awkward watched as Bella walked to her beat up truck, "Where's your car…?" the girl asked, and Harry flushed. He hoped he wouldn't be the only teenager at Forks High without his own car when the year started.

"I walked, I don't have a car," he replied sheepishly.

Bella cocked a brow, "Want a ride, you don't live far do you?"

"Oh no, I shouldn't—"

"I didn't ask for a self-righteous decline, I asked if you wanted a ride, and it's obvious that you do. Hop in, I'll take you home, it's the least I can do for a newcomer such as yourself," she said kindly, smiling as she took Harry's bag and placed them in the back, "Don't give me that look either, mister,"

Harry laughed, and so did Bella, _I think I might like this girl,_ he thought, and hopped into the truck, allowing her to drive her home. When they arrived to Harry and Severus' home, Harry hopped out and walked around to Bella's side, and spoke to her through her rolled down window, "Thanks for the lift and good laugh, you're really great, you know that?"

She laughed in return to his compliment, "No big deal, here, this is my number. Call me if you ever need a lift to school or anything even though your father's probably going to be the professor anyway. You can call if you just need to get away and hang out too, make new friends and such, doesn't matter really,"

"Cool," Harry took the piece of paper with the number written down on it, did he and Severus even have a muggle phone? He'd have to invest in one then, if they didn't, "I might take you up on that offer, have a good night, it was nice meeting you Bella,"

"Later, Harry," she waved with a large toothy grin, and pulled away from the beautiful house.

Harry sighed, turned, and took his bag of items into the house. He missed his friends back at Hogwarts. He shook his head, ridding himself of those thoughts, he needed to forget about those things; that wasn't his life anymore, this was his life, and he needed to make the best of what it was, even if it wasn't all that much. When he entered the house Severus was there in the kitchen, sipping fondly at his cup of tea with a small smirk on his face, "Welcome back,"

"Sev'!" Harry said, a bit surprised that the other man was home so quick, he must have taken longer at the store than he originally planned. He paused at the expression on the other's face, "What?"

"I got the job, school starts in two weeks, be ready, _'son',_"

Harry grinned, "Fantastic! See, didn't I tell you you'd do it? You give yourself little credit, Sev',"

"Yes… and will you stop calling me that!"

"Never! And here, since I went out and got it all, you can put the groceries away," Harry shouted mischievously as he dropped the bags onto the floor and dashed from the kitchen and up to his room.

Snape scolded and sipped his tea once more, _damn that Gryffindor._

* * *

_There that is, hopefully it wasn't too dreadful. Tell me what you think, I suppose. Things lighten up and get better, promise (at least I hope so, that's simply my opinion). I'm trying to add a little background to how I set up Severus and Harry; I'm sure you all understand now, how exactly I am going to portray them in this story. Which is why I made it AU (Alternate Universe, for those who are unsure of the term). Of course, I'm adding my own twist to the whole Voldemort thing, and I'm sure I'll be adding other HP characters into the mix a little bit down the road; let's get Harry settled in first, hm? Thanks for reading!_


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks for the few reviews, I do appreciate it,**

**I just want to allow readers to know that I've noticed my errors in the last chapter and am extremely sorry. I made extra sure that this chapter was far better than the last when it comes to grammatically in correct things and spelling. Thank-you for understanding, and I hope you enjoy the next chapter to Transparent Fall… Oh, and for those who might become confused—because Harry grew up with Severus, it's only common knowledge that one of Harry's best friends be Draco, so for future reference, remember that.**

**Other than that, I realize that my rating for this story is in fact 'T', and I'm almost positive that it will most likely change in the future depending on where I take the story, but I will warn you ahead of time before I make any rate changes. Thanks again for the understanding.**

**I have the next few days off, so I decided to put my first day of being lazy to work and wrote this chapter. I tried to focus on it being a bit longer than the last two; and I hope it's satisfying enough. I never was a fan of short chapters myself, so I'm sure you aren't either. Please Enjoy!**

**Transparent Fall**: Chapter Three

Papers were scattered across the kitchen, a copy of the mandatory studying book that Severus will be teaching with at this new muggle school lay opened on the mahogany table. The soon to be 'muggle teacher' had been doing all that he could in the last two weeks to learn about this silly thing muggles call _chemistry_. Around four in the morning Severus decided it was completely acceptable to wish the deepest of pain onto the Potter boy, how dare he throw him in such a situation? Tomorrow would be the day he began teaching, and though he studied as best he could (and came to find that it truly isn't much different from teaching potions), he hadn't the faintest clue what the hell he was doing.

"Sev', you need to sleep, school starts tomorrow and if you're not well rested—"

"Don't patronize me, shouldn't _you _be sleeping?" Severus asked, not once tearing his eyes from the words written down in the scheduled book that he'd be using to teach his new students, "You weren't out flying, were you? I told you not to do that."

"I wasn't flying," Harry said, his face narrowing on the older man, he wasn't a child and therefore didn't like being treated as such, "Hedwig woke me up, she's restless… I was hoping you'd be okay with letting her out to fly for a bit so she'll calm down,"

There was a small silence, and then Severus straightened, "You know how risky it'll be if someone recognizes her, I warned you before we came here that she won't get much air—"

"But it's not like anyone around here is going to notice my owl, we're in bloody America, Severus, she needs to stretch her wings," the boy sounded defiant, and Severus was about to give up and give Harry what he wanted just so he wouldn't be annoyed any further. Harry continued, "Stop being paranoid over useless and unneeded things,"

There was a scoff, "Do as you please, but she comes straight back before the sun fully rises, understood?"

"Yes! Thank-you, Severus," Harry hugged his teacher from behind, creating a surprised grunt from the dark teacher before the teenager rushed upstairs to his owl and release her from that rubbish cage and give her wing-space.

He opened his window by pushing it up, and then, Hedwig took flight into the crisp morning air; the approaching morning dew leaving it humid and a bit moist. Harry smiled, leaning against his window to watch his owl flap her wings and happily glide through the new atmosphere. Harry wished he could write to his friends, wished he didn't have to be forced to a life of constant fighting, fear, and hiding. He knew this was for the best though, to come to America and be cut off from the magical world. Still, he was allowed to miss his best friends Ronald Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Draco Malfoy.

He remembers the last time he'd seen his friend, Draco, and can't help but smile. They were having a quick game of chess while Severus was busy talking to Lucius Malfoy about very few important things that hardly mattered to the two teenagers. Harry and Draco became friends at a young age, since Severus had already been named the godfather of the blonde Slytherin, Harry didn't have any problem becoming friends with the other boy.

He sighed, his eyes flickering to the owl once more before she disappeared into the wooded area to hunt for various rodents. Harry turned away from the window, leaving it open for when Hedwig planned on returning, and went to lay back down on his bed to catch an hour or so more of sleep.

Hedwig flew, swerving in and out of tree branches way, and diving every so often as she enjoyed the beautiful surrounding and scents. She swooped down to land on a branch and her large eyes blinked. Across from her just a few feet stalking through the woods had been a pair of humans. They both glanced up and saw the snowy bird and raised an eyebrow as they looked at each other with curiosity. They've seen owls before, plenty of times, hell—they even hunted a few. But never had they seen one as beautifully sculpted as this one.

The owl let out a small squawk and took off from the branch and flew back towards her new home where her owner, Harry, was soundly asleep. He knew his owl would return before the sun fully made an appearance, so he wasn't worried too much. She swooped up into the window and into her opened cage with a happy shake of her wings; she was clueless to her followers, who stood at the tree line just behind the house looking up at the window that the owl had flew in.

Jasper's eyes widened and he had to grab Edward and use as much of his strength as possible to keep his brother from jumping through the window and killing the boy inside. Jasper could feel the emotions pouring from the other and knew he was in some deep shit if he couldn't get Edward away quickly. _Want, thirst, want, thirst, and want, _those were the emotions oozing out from the other vampire. Jasper quickly tried to speak to his outrageous brother, _Edward, you need to calm down, calm down!_

A nasty snarl erupted from Edward, his usually topaz eyes now dark black due to the smell that floated down from the open window. All Edward could think about was the sweet blood that entered his nose; he'd destroy anything in his path just so he could get to that _wonderful_ smell. Jasper sighed when he was able to calm Edward down enough to make the other vampire realised that had been happening. His chest hurt, a harsh weight pressing down onto every part of his body as he rejected the urge to devour whoever it was in the home in front of him.

Jasper made eye contact with him and shook his head. Jasper was smart, he knew that this particular house had been empty for as long as he could remember. He also knew that Alice had mentioned that Edward's mate, Harry, had recently moved in. Edward's behavior was enough to give the rest away so that it made perfect sense. This was Harry's home, and from the emotions Jasper felt from Edward…

Harry was his singer.

"No, Edward… Look at me. I said look at me Edward! You need to fight this, go home and get away from here," Jasper watched as Edward's eyes looked to his brother in horror. Edward's thoughts were nothing pleasant, and he was horrified at the monstrosities that he wanted to do at the very moment, "Move, Edward, you need to get away from here,"

Edward did as told and fled the area. Jasper turned to look back up to the house, these next few months were going to be very interesting indeed, and he began to wonder if Alice saw this happening; if perhaps there had been a different outcome where Edward couldn't fight his desires and ended up attacking his own mate, feeding from him and leaving no time for him to live—killing him. Would Edward have been able to live with himself? Jasper decided not to think about it any longer, because it (thankfully) didn't happen like that. Jasper then dashed after his brother to make sure he was making it home alright.

_oOoOoOo_

It was the first day back to school, and Alice couldn't help but be worried and excited all at the same time. This would be the day she met Harry, and her new teacher Professor Snape. Edward wasn't coming today; he decided to go to Alaska for a few weeks because of what happened with Jasper in the woods yesterday morning. Alice was surprised, she didn't think Harry would have that sort of effect on her brother, and she could only hope that when Edward returned from Alaska everything would be fine.

Emmett and Rosalie already graduated, for what seemed like the millionth time, and so Alice and Jasper were the only two of the Cullen family that would be showing up to school today since Edward couldn't make it. Alice knew a few people that will probably be saddened by this; like Jessica Stanley, who had a very creepy obsession with the vampire who hardly spoke three words to her. Alice and Jasper pulled into the school's parking lot and hopped from their expensive vehicle and made their way into the school. They held hands with each other until they had to pull away to go to their separate classes.

Alice grinned, knowing her first class was Chemistry (the odds in that happening, ha) and made sure she was the first student to the room, trying her hardest not to grin when the new teacher jumped at the sound of someone coming into his class (a class that looked completely different than his back at Hogwarts), she cheerily went up to his desk and held her hand out, "Hello, I'm Alice Cullen, you're the new chemistry teacher, correct? It's nice to meet you, I'm sure you're going to do a wonderful job teaching here at Forks High,"

Severus had no clue how to react to her; none of his students had boldly gone up to his desk before and demand a handshake, unless they were Slytherin of course. Different replies swept through his brain, and he tried to think of a suitable one, "Welcome to my class, Ms. Cullen, please take a seat anywhere in the room," he ignore her held out hand, but didn't once let the odd colour of the girl's eyes slip his mind. He shook it off and motioned his hand once again in annoyance and sighed mentally when the woman nodded with a smile and took a seat near the front of the room.

In a short amount of time more students piled into the room, and by the time the bell rang the class door was closed and Severus was staring into the eyes of anxious students. He was well prepared, spending the last two weeks studying up on things, and he figured he could probably get away with having them read from the blasted text books and get by through the year like that. He shook his head and turned to the chalk board, grabbing the white calk and scribbling the name 'Snape' boldly onto the green slate.

He turned back to his students and spoke, chalk still in his hand, "I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death," he grinned, and looked to his class for a reaction and frowned when most students gave him raised eyebrows and looked at him as if he were loony. He cleared his throat and tried again, ignoring the giggle coming from the Cullen girl, "Why don't we just begin with the table of elements and a brief refreshment on what _exactly_ chemistry is… For the moment, introduce yourselves because I don't want to waste time trying to remember your useless names,"

And the class went on to introduce himself, when an arrogant boy from the back decided to make a snide comment, Snape was almost hesitant to take points from the boy but then remembered this wasn't Hogwarts and there weren't any houses, therefore, there weren't any points to be taken away. He wondered for a brief moment if there had even been detentions in muggle schooling. Surely it wouldn't be _that_ difficult… could it? This would prove to be a challenging moment in his life, that's for sure.

"Professor," Alice said suddenly, holding her hand up with a knowing smile on her face. Snape instantly looked up to the short girl and raised an eyebrow (hoping that was enough for her to go on with whatever it was she wanted to ask), "Do you mind telling us where you're from? I couldn't help but notice your accent, you're foreign, right?"

"Where I'm from is hardly any of your business, Ms. Cullen," it was harsh, but it didn't affect Alice in the slightest. She hardly flinched from his tone and he continued to raise his brow then, usually students feared him. Was this student going to be different? "Come grab a book, Ms. Cullen, we're going to start with you and then everyone after you will come to take their assigned book,"

Alice did just that, and when she reached the desk where the stack of books had been she leaned forward just slightly to ask another question, her grin never leaving, she loved good fun. It wasn't often something so interesting and entertaining happened to her or her family, she couldn't help herself. Her words were quiet, and she wondered if even Severus had heard her questions when she asked, "Is it alright to ask _what_ you are then?"

Snap gaped at her, horrified (though his face hadn't showed it). He pretended not to hear her, and dismissed her from his desk and back to her own. The rest of the class continued on just like that. Severus would call on students to read certain sections from the mandatory text book and as his new students read, he couldn't take his eyes from the Cullen brat; just _who_ the hell did she think she was? Severus wanted to know what she meant by her question, could it be possible that she knows of Wizards? Examining the teenager further, he noticed something himself. And he had to ask himself, _Just _what_ exactly are you, Ms. Cullen?_

The first half of the day went smoothly for Severus, and he found that teaching a muggle subject wasn't so though; found he was rather unhappy with how things turned out for him the first half of the day. In his first class he was stuck sitting beside some girl named Jessica, who wouldn't shut up when their teacher was talking and kept asking stupid questions about whether or not he was in a relationship, or what it was like where he was from. He finally snapped at the girl in fourth period (another class they shared together), and left her looking red and embarrassed.

Harry's thoughts instantly went to Bella and were she was. They were supposed to be in the same grade, and yet, there was no sign of them having any classes together. That's when Harry apologized to Jessica for his _rude behavior_ and asked her, "Are you, by any chance, friends with Bella Swan?"

"Bella?" Jessica said, her face holding a smile but her voice showing complete resentment, "We're best friends (Harry could tell that was a complete lie, there was no way Jessica was Bella's best friend). Lunch is just after this period, so if you want we can sit with her at lunch,"

"That sounds great," Harry said fondly, in desperate need to speak with the girl he met at the market just two weeks ago. He suddenly felt guilty for not calling her with the number she had given him, "Better pay attention before the teacher catches us talking," though in all honesty he just didn't want to listen to the annoying female any more than needed.

Lunch came and he followed Jessica into the cafeteria, Harry felt relief when he was Bella across the room talking with a few people who he has yet to meet. When she looked over to him and Jessica she smiled brightly and raised her hand, "Harry! There you are!"

The messy haired wizard rushed over to Bella and allowed her to pull him into a friendly hug, when she pulled away she smiled down at him and said, "I didn't know if you were still coming or not, you never really called me and I haven't seen you in the halls or in class,"

"Well, here I am," he flushed, "And sorry, I didn't have time to call you. I had to catch up and study for the new school year and help my _dad_ out with a few things. Did you have Chemistry yet…?"

"No, I have chemistry right after lunch—" Bella was cut off by Jessica.

She spoke nastily, "I had chemistry third period, that new teacher is awful and mean,"

"That new teacher," Harry began defensively, turning to Jessica with the nastiest glare, "Would happen to be my father,"

Bella snorted at Jessica's face, knowing that the girl knew she screwed up big time. Jessica quickly laughed and tried to save herself by lying, "Oh, but he wasn't _so_ bad by the end of the period, he has good teaching skills, truly,"

"I'm sure." Harry spat and turned to Bella, "So, where do you usually sit in this place?"

Bella lead Harry to one of the round tables where they sat. Harry learned that Bella had a few good friends. There was Mike, Angela, and Eric. They were charming and funny, but Harry couldn't help but want to throw up when Jessica practically (and shamelessly) threw herself at Mike with every chance she could get. Harry zoned from their conversation and began to think about Severus, hoping his mentor's first day had been a bit more productive than his was. He shook his head and zoned back into the conversation when Jessica asked, "Where do you think Edward is, do you think he dropped out?"

"Who's Edward?" Harry asked, the name seemed interesting to him.

Bella rolled her eyes at Jessica, "She's talking about Edward Cullen, he's a student here, he should be in our classes, but apparently he never showed up. His brother and sister are here though, they're also in our grade,"

"How are they all in the same grade level?" Harry asked.

Jessica instantly answered, "Mr. and Mrs. Cullen adopted them, Jasper's supposed to be graduated already with his twin, but he decided to stay back a year to get a few extra credits that he needs, I think he just stayed back to be with his girlfriend, Alice Cullen,"

"They're together," Bella answered, "The other two of Mr. and Mrs. Cullen are Rosalie Hale and Emmett Cullen, and they're a couple. Rosalie is Jasper's twin, and Jasper is currently going out with Alice. Edward is the only one Mr. Cullen hasn't found a match for yet,"

Jessica sneered, "I still think it's weird and gross. Just because they're adopted doesn't make it right. Oh, here comes Jasper and Alice," Harry looked up, scanning the cafeteria and his eyes instantly found the two of them. They were remarkable, flawless, and beautiful. Harry gaped and quickly looked away when the boy looked over at him with a pained expression, "Mrs. Cullen can't have children,"

"Your point is?" Harry asked, "Just because she can't have children certainly doesn't mean she doesn't deserve kids. Being adopted makes them no less her's than any child she gave birth to would,"

"That isn't what I meant," Jessica played off, but was simply ignored by Harry.

Bella smiled, "Edward and I were biology partners last year, and he isn't so bad. Alice is actually quite funny sometimes, we had P.E. together too, and I wonder if we'll have any classes together this year,"

"Please," Jessica snarled, "Edward Cullen thinks he's too good for any girl here, he has an egotistical problem if you ask me,"

"Snarling doesn't make you any less uglier than you already are, Jessica, you might not want to do that in the future so often," Harry snapped, standing from the table, "I'm heading to class early, catch you later Bella?"

Bella looked at him in shock, did he really just say that to Jessica, "Yeah, definitely,"

Harry smiled and walked off, glancing back to the Cullen couple before he left..

Jasper and Alice smiled, "You were right; we're going to love him,"

Alice nodded at her mate's words, "He's amazing! Esme I going to adore him, I can see it already,"

"I bet you can," Jasper pulled his mates hand closer to his and kissed her cheek as they sat alone.

The rest of the day went alright for Harry, it went even better when he realised that Jessica was avoiding and ignoring him to the best of her abilities. Harry and Bella shared two classes together, Chemistry had been one and some math called _trigonometry_ had been the other. By the end of the day the only class left for Harry was some sort of art class, which he wasn't complaining because the teacher reminded him a lot of Luna Lovegood—the way she spoke of odd things and how the students made fun of her about being weird and loony behind her back.

Harry sat in front of the aisle that his teacher had set out for the students. Their first assignment was to draw how the felt about their first day back to school, something basic for the first day as not to _'stress'_ us as she liked to say. He jumped in fright and looked at the girl who tapped his shoulder. He remembered the incident in the cafeteria and instantly placed a face with a name. Alice Cullen. What did she want? Her smile never faded, which made Harry laugh nervously and scratch the back of his head.

"Hi, you're Harry, right, you're new to Forks…?" her voice was heavenly, and Harry couldn't help but think of pixies when he looked at the beautiful girl in front of him.

Harry nodded, "Yeah, my father's the new chemistry teacher. We just moved here a few weeks ago. You're Alice Cullen, right… Sorry, that Jessica Stanley girl was talking about you; that's how I know you're name if you think I'm a creep,"

"No," Alice giggled, finding what Harry said funny and rather cute, "Stanley talks about everyone, no one admits it, but she isn't too liked around here. I just came to thank you for sticking up for my mother at lunch. I overheard the conversation,"

"Oh, you're welcome," Harry felt he could trust this girl, "My mum and dad died when I was young, and before you ask—Severus _is_ my dad, he's just not my birth father, as you would understand since your parents are you're… well…"

"Adoptive," Alice finished for him, her charming smile never leaving, "Anyway, it was nice meeting you. I've got to get back to my own painting. I just wanted to thank you is all,"

Harry nodded, "It's no problem,"

He went back to his own painting and then the bell signaling that the day was over rang, and Alice was gone before he could speak to her. He packed up his things and turned to the door with a halt. He froze, and it clicked, _she was on the other side of the room, how could she hear what I said?_

He needed to tell Severus about this, and fast.

_oOoOoOo_

"I was afraid of this," Severus muttered as he glumly sat down at the kitchen table and Harry stood on the other side of the kitchen, "I thought something was off about those two kids, and if you say she could hear you from across a very crowded and noisy room than that only adds to the suspicions,"

"What could it mean?" Harry asked, his worry evident in his voice, "Do they know about us…?"

Severus shook his head, "I don't think so, but that Alice girl has suspicions of her own. She came up to my desk during class and asked _what_ I was. It isn't just that, but she spoke it so softly I could hardly make out what she asked me,"

"So she knows we aren't muggles, or, we're not normal?" this was terrifying, Harry didn't want to leave to go somewhere else already. He finally thought all the running would be over, that there wouldn't be any reason for them to keep running if they stayed here... but if this Cullen girl knew what they were it would be too risky and Severus would insist that they leave for somewhere else ASAP, "Are we going to have to leave again?"

Snape groaned and rubbed his temples, "I don't know, but we've got to get to the bottom of this soon, because if she does know, then we need to find out what her and her family are hiding as well, because that Hale boy wasn't much different than her, and they're siblings, aren't they?"

"They're all adopted; apparently the doctor at the Forks Hospital and his wife adopted them. There's supposed to be a guy named Edward attending this school year too, and then there's another girl and guy who just graduated last year," Harry relayed the information to Severus, trying to keep his panic down to a minimum so Snape wouldn't worry too much about him. Harry really wished Hermione was here to calm him down at the moment; she always did well with that.

_If only I could write to her, write to anyone, I'll surely go insane without any contact;_ Harry frowned when Severus didn't bother to reply; but instead read a copy of the Daily Prophet and ignore Harry completely as he thought of the possible outcomes that could happen in the next few weeks. Harry, frustrated and upset, stalked upstairs and into his room where he gave Hedwig a treat through her cage and he sat down on his bed and pulled a small shoe box from under it and sat it on his lap.

Inside the box was collections of old letters that he felt were important. Some were from Ron, others Hermione and Draco, and the occasionally letters he received from Severus. He just stared down, and resentment flashed through him. He shouldn't blame Severus, he truly shouldn't. The only one to blame had been Voldemort, but here Harry was, hating Severus because he was forced to this life—a life he never asked for in the first place.

It made him want to act out, it made him want to do something against Severus that could hurt him just as much as Harry was hurting. And that's what he did too. Harry stood from his bed and went over to the desk across the room and grabbed a piece of parchment and a quill. He knew this would be a risk, and could even be a huge mistake if he wrote this letter, but he was too angry at the world to give a shit. He began the letter, and this is what it wrote:

_Dear, Draco,_

_Severus and I have gone, if you were worried about our current whereabouts, please, don't worry too much. We've found a good place to hide, but there's a problem already. Do you remember when we used to pretend we were pirates? How we used to use the bathtub as a boat and pretend we were traveling the world? I wish we could go back to that, travel the world without a single worry, without the fear of dying tomorrow; or sometime soon at least._

_Listen, you can't allow anyone to know I sent you this letter, if you want to tell anyone only tell Hermione and Ron. It would be risky for anyone else to know, and surely I can trust that you'll keep this letter away from that sodding father of yours. I feel bad now, thinking about it, I wish we could have brought you—but Severus said even _that_ was too risky. I feel sick, being cut off from London, unable to know the latest attack, or other vital information. Thinking of this only makes me even more terrified, are you safe and okay? Are Hermione and Ron alright? What about others?..._

_We might have to move to another place, Severus and I. There's this family here, we don't know who they are, but one of them seems a bit knowing of us; and even that's too risky. Sometimes, I wish we could just find a place where we could finally, _finally_ stop worrying—but I suppose we can't do that here even, bloody-hell I really wish I could talk to you or Hermione right now. Merlin knows Ron has the emotional range of a teaspoon so going to him for comfort is out of the question._

_I'm risking a lot sending this to you, but as my best friend you deserve to know at least a little…_

_I miss you greatly, STAY SAFE, and stay alive._

_Ever yours,_

_Scarhead._

Harry knew he shouldn't put his actually name down, he wasn't that stupid. And since Scarhead had been a name Draco called him often (no matter how much Harry hated it), he knew Draco would understand perfectly who had sent him the letter. He didn't expect a reply, of course, because, what with all the shite happening in London at the moment, that would be even more risky than Harry sending a letter. He brought Hedwig from her cage,

"You take this to Draco, and you come straight back, do you understand?"

The snowy owl gave a high pitch squeak and plucked the letter from Harry's hand and took off from the window. As soon as the owl was gone from sight Harry instantly felt something in the pit of his stomach. Severus told him that sending letter's was _strictly_ off limits… and dread fell over Harry, he went against Severus, and it wasn't something he usually did. He regretted it, but at the same time a wave of happiness overtook him. Writing to Draco made him feel so much better than he had before, he felt a bit of his worried thoughts leave him and he wondered how the young Malfoy would react to Harry's letter…

What Harry didn't know was, that writing that Letter was going to be the worst mistake he'd ever done, that simple letter brings more trouble than he could have ever imagined to the small town of Forks, Washington—and he didn't even know it.

One simple letter, _that's all it took._

_oOoOoOo_

Two weeks into his attempt at a muggle life and Harry was beyond stressed and tired with all these tests and studying that his new teachers had him doing. Especially the homework, he received more homework in just this past week than he had in a month at Hogwarts. As he sat in his Language Arts class, he couldn't help but stare out through the window and think about flying—his broom, the snitch, his teammates. He missed it, he missed it all actually. He found a few good things about living here though, Bella was a brilliant friend, and Harry found himself becoming very close to her in these short few days.

"Hey, what's eating you?" Bella asked from beside him. Harry turned in his desk and looked over to his newly made best friend and took in her appearance. Her beautifully silky long brown hair was curly and faming her face perfectly, her chocolate brown eyes reminded him so painfully much of Hermione, and he smiled at her, "I take it you're not going to tell me even if I begged you,"

"Nope!" Harry said teasingly, and grinned at how Bella already knew him so well, he must be easily readable. Harry noted that he'd have to work on that; he didn't find it soothing that he was an open book, "I promise you I'm fine, get back to your essay,"

Bella grinned, "Wait, I wanted to ask you something,"

"Ask away," Harry said and glanced to the clock on the wall across the room; this class was going to end in a few minutes so chatting wouldn't hurt his and her essay too much. He looked back to her and she asked,

"I wanted to know if maybe you'd like to come to the beach this afternoon with Mike and I, you can finally meet Jacob if you come. He's been wondering about you, since I talk about you often; I think he's a bit jealous, but don't tell him I said that to you," she chuckled, and then looked to Harry with a hopeful stare.

The green-eyed wizard had to blink, "The beach…? Uh, I don't know, I'd have to ask Sev', and I've got a lot of homework to catch up on since I've had so much lately—I don't think it would be wise—"

"Come on, live on the wild side a little!" Bella coaxed.

_You don't even know, Bella, you don't even know, _Harry gave a sigh and gave her offer a good thought, "Alright, when exactly after school are we going?"

"Meet me after your last class by my truck, it isn't really swimming weather so we probably won't go into the water today, but I think it'd be cool that my best friend gets to meet my boyfriend, _finally_,"

"Best friend…?" he asked her astonishingly,

And her smile in return made his stomach flip, "Yeah, you're my best friend… is that okay?"

"It's… Brilliant," he whispered out and smiled back, and the bell signaling for their late lunch pang through the school. Harry couldn't help but think that he might have to leave, if Severus ever figured out the secret behind these Cullens... could he handle leaving another friend behind? "C'mon then mate, I'm bloody hungry,"

Bella giggled and they walked together to Lunch.

They sat with their annual group of friends, and Harry found himself gaining a headache when Jessica went on another one of her rampages about some girl who she thinks is a slut because of something or other about the Prom and her date and what she was going to do about her dress; and just anything that could possibly make Harry cringe and hold back his urge to reach over and slap the girl silly. Though what she said next sparked an interest in Harry, "Edward's back, I wish I could skip the first three weeks of school and get away with it,"

Harry's head popped up and he searched the room. Indeed he found them, _the Cullens_. But there was no Edward, only Alice and Jasper sat there. Alone. At the table. No one else. Apparently Jessica noticed this too and scowled, "I suppose lunch is too good for him too,"

"Lay off, Jessica, you're just mad because he declined your offer to prom last year," Mike said suddenly, and Jessica gaped at the other boy who simply ignored her look and glanced up to Harry, "Anyway, are you coming with us to the beach, Harry?"

"What?" Harry pulled his attention from the Cullens and back to Mike, "Oh, yeah, Bella asked me last period, I'm a bit excited, apparently Jake's supposed to be there, oohh-lalala,"

Bella playfully slapped Harry's shoulder from beside her, "Shut up, I don't see you with a girlfriend,"

"Too much work," at Harry's reply he earned a laugh from both Mike and Eric.

Lunch ended, and Harry made his way to Chemistry.

When he got there, he wasn't surprised to see that he was one of the first. He sat near the back and avoided any look that Severus may have given him by looking out of the window once more and pretended he was on his broom. He was still fairly upset with the teacher; and he wanted to make sure Severus knew, that it bothered him. And Harry knew it bothered Severus, more than ever. He hated when Harry ignored him more so than he hated Voldemort.

Harry hardly noticed when someone sat next to him, and when he nodded and turned to grab a notebook from the bag that was slung around the chair he was sitting on his noticed that the person beside him was someone unfamiliar. When he looked up he nearly gasped and fell from his chair when a handsome, topaz and bronze haired boy (who was too flawless and sharply sculpted to be a boy), smiled at him sweetly, "Hello, it's nice to meet you; I'm Edward Cullen—you must be the new student my sister Alice was talking about.

_THIS was Edward-bloody-Cullen! There was no way, no POSSIBLE way he was human._

Harry shook, not sure if he should feel intimidated by the larger male or not, but he certainly found himself feeling extremely insecure when he took in the beautiful male beside him; flawless (just like his brother and sister, this made him wonder if his other siblings and parents were just as… glowing…

"I'm Harry," the other said, "I—I think class is about to start, better pay attention, you've missed a lot,"

Out of the corner of his eye, Harry could see the other staring at him, smirking. Harry shivered when he spoke, "You're right, I wouldn't want to fall behind and fail or anything,"

_Why did that sound like it was meant to be a joke, was it a joke? No. It was hardly funny, but why is he chuckling then? Why the fuck is he grinning? He scares me, he scares me a lot. No. I won't allow him to intimidate nor scare me—he isn't normal, I can tell—and just like Severus, I'm going to get to the bottom of whatever the hell is going on around here. They were all adopted; there was NO way in hell they should all have topaz eyes—hell, that's not even a common eye colour… Hermione told me something once…_ Harry squeezed his eyes shut and tried to think of what Hermione told him once, he remembers something about diets, diets and eye colour; but what the hell was it? That's when it all clicked. He may not have been as smart as Hermione, but he did have six years of DADA.

It all made perfect sense. Flawless appearance, the way Alice spoke to Severus so quietly that no one else in the room could hear her, the way she overhead his conversation across the lunch room, the way they were extremely pale and Alice's hand had been freezing when they touch his shoulder in art class. The way their eyes were topaz, because they couldn't be red—not when they were vegetarians.

"Vampires," Harry whispered lowly, and his eyes narrowed as he glanced to Edward, enjoying the shocked and horrified look of the other, _what, no longer confident? What do you want, I bet they're working for Voldemort, spies. Vampires are never good, ever. They're dark creatures and Severus and I need to watch our backs carefully, I'll need to tell him—but maybe he already knows._

Edward leaned towards him a bit, "Excuse me?"

"Nothing," Harry said coldly and turned to his notebook, but he wrote it clear enough and big enough.

_VAMPIRE._

Edward had a bit of trouble on his hands, that's for sure. This was _splendid_, somehow he had ended up with a mate who was most certainly not human, but also knew of vampires. He could see the slow-building hatred that Harry was attaining for him, and he felt himself sink into a pool of depression.

This was NOT how he wanted his first meeting with his mate to go, this was the WRONG first impression. No, no, no, no, no, no, no—he needed to fix this. He felt his mate getting further away from him even though he was right beside him. He needed to set things straight, needed to talk to him about things, maybe his mate's just a bit overly suspicious and odd; maybe he's just playing a funny joke (which isn't funny at all).

Harry looked confidently up to the vampire, and their eyes clashed—emerald and topaz.

And Edward knew this wasn't a joke then, the sickly sweet, and probably mocking smile that Harry gave him just then made him sink even further and take his eyes from the younger boy and to his new chemistry professor- who was staring at him oddly too. _Fuck. First day back and it all goes horribly, this is exactly what I was trying to avoid... I need to talk to Alice, she must have seen this, or something..._

* * *

_There we have that, things aren't going to be terribly bad from here between Edward and Harry; we've just got to get passed all of this misunderstanding and thn the bonding can arrive. We've still got that letter Harry sent to Draco to worry about, and we've got Jacob coming into the picture soon; I wonder how things with that are going to go (Oh wait, I already know, LOL). Hope you liked this chapter and it wasn't too boring; give the story some time~! x_


	4. Chapter 4

**Thank you ever so much for your reviews!**

**It took so much self-enthusiasm to write this, for some reason I just didn't have the motivation today, so it took me twice the amount of hours that it usually does. Been working on this since midnight, and it's currently five in the morning where I live. Dear Merlin, I just couldn't force myself to type. I'm going to bed after this for sure,**

**For those who might care, I recently found a song that I can't stop listening to, and it's currently what I'm writing this chapter to (it's on repeat), so anyone who would like to listen to the song it's called **_Fear and Loathing by Marina and the Diamonds._ **I think it matches the beginning of this chapter very well. Anyway, with that said I'd like to give you the fourth chapter, I'm still on my break and my friend canceled our plans so I decided to write. Please enjoy, it means SO much to me that you review, and it means even more to me that you like it.**

**Oh, and also— I have another story out called 'Canvas for the Dead', it's a crossover and it's Edward/Harry as well. So if you'd like to read that too you may and I'm going to be posting the second chapter to that today as well. Alright, I'm finished with my rambling; you may read this chapter in peace, lol.**

**Transparent Fall**: Chapter Four

"Harry," Edward tried to call out through the crowed of students blocking his way in the hall, "Harry, wait a minute,"

Oh, but Harry didn't wait, he made sure he was at a far distance from the vampire, safety comes first and right now he didn't feel like being Edward's next meal (him being a vegetarian vampire slipped his mind, he never was too bright when it came to common sense). Harry turned a corner, finding a bathroom to slip in; when he made sure no one else was there he let out a long and relieved sigh, his hand coming to rest over his hastily beating heart.

Everything was going too fast, he didn't know how he couldn't figure it out sooner, how Sev' wasn't able to figure it out before him—Alice and Jasper's eyes were evident enough, the way sometimes in the cafeteria they spoke so fast that Harry had to concentrate on their lips just to make out a few words, or when Alice touched him, her hands hard and cold, almost as if she were made of marble. Shaking his head Harry clasped his hands onto the sides of the sink in front of him, his eyes flickering to look at himself.

Calmness overtook him when he saw the colour of his mother's eyes in his own. _I can handle this, I've handled much worse than a family of sodding vampires. Just breathe, tell Severus he'll know what to do… Snape always knows what to do, he always has a plan, _and somewhere in the back of his mind, Harry knew there was a bit of doubt in his words.

When the door opened, Harry's head turned so quickly that he winced from the _pop_ that echoed from it. His frozen posture relaxed when he saw it was just some freshmen, and not Edward coming to bite into his neck and drain him of all life. He tried to remind himself once more that they were vegetarian vampires, and certainly weren't as harmful as Voldemort was. The younger boy looked to Harry with a raised eyebrow and then headed into one of the stalls with a shrug.

Harry sighed and straightened himself, focusing on being presentable when he left the bathroom so that he wouldn't appear _too_ vulnerable. He grabbed the cold handle of the swinging doors and opened them, when they swung closed behind him he looked up and jumped—

In front of him was a frowning Edward, "Didn't you hear me calling for you?"

"I ignored you, which could have been anyone's natural message from that. But I suppose you're not _normal_, are you Cullen?" the tone in Harry's voice was enough to make him sound confident, but not enough to make him appear so.

Edward sighed and looked down at his short mate, "I think we got off on the wrong start, if there was anything I said or did to offend you, I'm sorry, I hadn't meant to,"

"If this is your pathetic attempt at persuading me to believe you're not a…" Harry looked around for any eavesdroppers and spoke in a whisper he knew Edward would hear quite well, "vampire, it's not going to work, do I look stupid to you?"

Edward grabbed Harry's arm and moved him out of the way of the swinging bathroom doors when the freshman from earlier walked out—the two ignored the look the young boy gave them and Edward sighed, "This really isn't the place to talk, we could go somewhere more… _private_,"

"Private? You _do_ think I'm stupid, don't you? Think to yourself, Edward, when a vampire suggests to go somewhere private, how should one respond to that?" Edward had to admit, his mate could keep up a good fight. The wizard wasn't going to be fooled into anything, not that Edward was trying to fool him. The fact that his mate was able to handle himself in situations like this gave him a calming feeling that he wouldn't need to worry that much when he wasn't there to protect him twenty-four-seven.

But then he thought that if he were going to spend the rest of his immortal life with the boy, he certainly would go crazy with irritation, "I'm not going to harm you, my family and I are—"

"Vegetarians? I know that much, but it's not enough for me to trust you. You could be working with _anyone_ in attempts to harm me. I may not have lived as long as you, but I've lived enough to learn that trusting someone isn't wise," Harry didn't look Edward in the eye when he spoke the last bit, his scowl remained as he shifted, "I'm going to be late for class,"

Edward watched as Harry brushed past him and down the hall with an expression of defeat. _Working with anyone? What did that even mean…? Great, not only do I have an argumentative mate, but now I have paranoid mate, just my luck. I need to find Alice and Jasper before things get worse._

_oOoOoOo_

"Harry!" Bella jogged up to Harry happily. He was waiting outside in front of her truck. Her smile faded when she noticed the look on her best friend's face, "Something wrong?"

"Nothing," she could tell it was a lie, and a bad one at that but she didn't want to push him. She never liked when Charlie or Jake tried to force problems out of her. She nodded in understand and smiled when he said, "So, are you ready for the beach Miss Swan?"

"Yeah, Mike and the others are going to meet us there shortly after. Let's go," Harry nodded and climbed into the beat-up truck that must have been centuries old, but Harry smiled because he knew Bella loved this truck more than most of anything. Harry sighed, which didn't go unnoticed by Bella, she shifted so that her back was slightly against the driver's side door,

"I usually don't ask twice, but, are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine, it's just, I guess I just miss my old friends, that's all," Harry lied again, but Bella wouldn't accept this,

"I can take you home, if you'd like, you don't have to come to the beach if you don't want to—we can go another day when you're more up to it," Harry looked to Bella, her large doe eyes reminding her of Hermione so painfully so, and he nodded at her sweet suggestion, "Is that what you want?"

Harry nodded again, not speaking in fear that his voice may come out broken and that's not what he needed right now, he didn't need to make his only friend in Forks, Washington to be worried about him. She adjusted herself and pulled away from the school parking lot and headed towards Harry's house. They sat in silence, the two of them, both worried.

When she pulled up to the house Harry thanked her and apologized for his behavior. Bell shook her head and gave him a serious look, "Call me later, will you?"

"Yeah," Harry breathed out, "I'll call you later; don't worry so much about me, alright? I don't like when my friends worry about me. Just… have fun with Jacob, and tell him I'm sorry I can't meet him today,"

"No problem," Bella said, and winced when the passenger door shut harshly, "See ya',"

Harry waved and he made his way up the gravel path, which was becoming too familiar, perhaps that was a sign that he and Severus had been here long enough and it was time to move on. This frustrated him, and he as he stepped up to the door he glanced over to where Severus' car that was brought from Seattle was parked. Usually Severus was at the school until darkness fled the sky—it was strange that he was home so earlier when school was just out not that long ago. Harry laughed bitterly, _nothing's strange anymore._

When he walked into the house and removed his shoes, when he turned to enter the kitchen he froze.

Severus was sitting at the table, two cups of coffee placed on the mahogany top. He was listening intently to the man sitting across from him, a blonde older man—who Harry recognized as marble and pale—a Cullen, "Severus, what are you doing? Why are you in my house?" Harry motioned his hand over his pocket and froze. He didn't have his wand, "Sev', he's a vampire. They're all vampires; I figured it out in Chemistry when Edward Cullen spoke to me. DON'T YOU DARE GET UP—"

Harry shouted when he noticed the blond stranger shift his chair back and begin to stand. Mr. Cullen instantly placed himself back on the chair and watched as Harry rounded the table to stand beside Severus—who strangely didn't pull his wand out at the new information that Harry just told him, but instead the raven haired teacher stood from the table and slapped Harry on the back of the head rather harshly, "Do you think I'd let anyone harmful into my house?"

"What the _fuck!_" Harry hissed, and rubbed the back of his head which had been throbbing from the abuse it just received, "don't you get it Sev'? Their eyes—"

"_They're_ vegetarians, Potter, which means their diet consists of animal blood, I don't think they're going to be drinking from us anytime soon,"

Harry frowned and flushed a bit, pointing to the vampire sitting at their table, "But you still can't trust them, what if—"

"I gave him _veritaserum_, Potter; I would hope that you paid attention enough in my classes to know what that _means_," the look Severus gave him could make anyone crawl under a rock and stay there. Harry flushed even more in embarrassment. He was going to have to apologize to Edward later on for making him feel like such a threat, "Mr. Cullen and his family have no clue about our world, or about _you-know-who_. So address our guest with respect,"

"S-sorry for that then, but," Harry swallowed and looked to the vampire sheepishly, "Why exactly are you here…?"

Carlisle smiled warmly up at what he hoped to be a permanent extension to his family one day, "I came to speak with Severus about _situations_. Alice told me she had a vision of you and Edward's conversation today at school and I wanted to come explain things to you. We'll happily stay out of your way, if you wish, but we'd like to have comfort in knowing that you'll keep our true selves secret,"

"I explained to him our situation as well, Harry, so they know what we are," Severus explained.

Harry's eyes widened, he growled, and he turned to Severus with his fists balled at his sides, "Why would you tell them that we're wizards! Just a few days ago you were ready to pack up and leave because of what Alice asked you on the first day of school! Do you realize how dangerous this is going to be? Not only do we live with vampires, but now someone knows of our whereabouts!"

"Harry—" Carlisle stood and was cut off by Harry, who believed he was the only person thinking sanely in this house,

"I don't care if he used _veritaserum_, you could easily be tricking us, you could easily hurt us!"

Carlisle frowned, this boy was going to be hard to convince, "I can promise you that we have no intentions on hurting you, I just wanted to assure that our secret wasn't going to get out and we wouldn't have to move earlier than planned,"

"Leave earlier?"

Carlisle nodded, "Yes, my family and I can only live in one place for a short amount of time before humans begin to suspect something. In a way, I guess we're a lot like you,"

"No," the young wizard snapped, "we're _nothing_ alike,"

But he lied, because by the look on Carlisle's face when he explained that his family couldn't live in the same place for long made him emphasize. Just like Harry they couldn't get too attached to others, because they knew they were going to leave soon and it'd only cause more hurt to their long lives. He then wondered why Edward, so unlike his brother and sister, would try to talk to him then. Alice and Jasper kept to themselves and resisted speaking to anyone else, but Edward took the time to chase him down a hall and ask to speak somewhere more privately.

Things weren't adding up, things didn't make any fucking sense, and Harry was impatient. He wanted answers, "So you're living like humans and you feed from animals… why?"

"Correct. We feed from animals for a simple reason. We don't like being murderers, that's not what we want to be in our long life of existing. We drink from animals so that we don't have to kill innocent humans, we're not _entirely_ bad, and that's what Edward was trying to explain to you in school today. He didn't want you to judge him and then tell the rest of the town," the man sounded educated, and Harry noted that he'd probably been around for a while and intelligence came easily to him.

Harry's eyes widened, "y-you know about that?"

Severus sat back down, tired of standing after standing all day to teach his muggle class, "apparently his daughter is a seer so she can see events that might happen in the future, and that Jasper boy can control emotions. Carlisle works as a doctor at the Forks Hospital, so I suppose we're not the only ones who want to have a normal life, Potter,"

_Don't make me feel even more horrible, Severus, _Harry sighed and held his hand out to Carlisle who smiled and shook it, "I'm sorry for acting like that, but I suppose if anyone's going to understand it would be you," the shaking laugh coming from Harry didn't go unnoticed, "we must be the first wizards you've ever met then,"

"Yes, and I must say I'm very intrigued," Carlisle went on the explain, "And I may not know much of your situation, but if you ever come across trouble in Forks, you know where to find my family,"

The forwardness took Harry by surprise; he nodded, "Right,"

"I also really do hope you speak with Edward soon," said the doctor, and Harry mentally wanted to run from the kitchen and somewhere else. Was Alice going to see everything that went on in his life? Because if so he was going to have to complain—he liked having privacy. He shook the thoughts and listened to Carlisle, "He has enough troubles when it comes to feeling like a monster,"

"I—I'm sorry, I shouldn't have judged and instantly placed you in a category—I'm being just as bad as the purebloods in the wizarding world," Harry rushed to explain, "I really hope you don't believe that I think you're a bunch of monsters… I'm very bad when it comes to meeting new people I suppose,"

Severus scoffed, "You're bad at almost everything, Potter, even apologies,"

"Sod off," Harry muttered to his fatherly-figure, who rolled his eyes and went back to reading the muggle newspaper in front of him. This was the hint that perhaps it was time for Carlisle, to leave. The blond man nodded to Harry and then to Severus,

"I should get back to the hospital; it was a pleasure meeting the two of you,"

Harry nodded and walked him to the door, he whispered a kind goodbye to Carlisle but froze when the _much _elder man turned to him with a pleading face, "Please give Edward a chance," and then he stalked off, leaving a confused and terrified Harry.

_What the hell does that mean…?_

_oOoOoOo_

Harry was feeling much better, especially now that he understood the Cullens. He lay on his bed reading over a few notes he might need for the upcoming test that he's going to be having on Monday. He still didn't have a clue about muggle history, especially the American version of it. He frowned though when he looked to the empty cage across his room.

Hedwig had yet to return from giving Draco his letter. Dread filled Harry from top to bottom, and he regretted ever sending Draco a letter out of frustration to Severus. He thought about telling his professor, but decided against it in fear of the consequences. It was a long journey for Hedwig, maybe she needs more time to get back, _everything is fine_.

Emerald eyes flicked over to the piece of paper sticking loosely out of his tablet.

Bella. The number written consisted of the curly handwriting that belonged to his new friend and, feeling much better than he had yesterday after school, he decided it might not harm him so much to give her a call with the new phone that Severus had to invest in for the purpose of his new job. So far he's received nothing but calls of angry parents demanding that he not fail their student.

Harry and Bella were the only two students _not_ failing his class. Hermione would be proud. He tumbled down the stairs, making Severus bark something along the lines of 'mind the floor', and made it to where the muggle phone was hung on the wall. It must have been out of date, but he didn't care. He picked up the phone and dialed her number, listening as it rang.

"Bella—"

"_You've reached Bella, sorry I wasn't able to answer in time,_" there was a bit of giggling in the background, and then a deep voice of someone trying to attempt a very posh and horrid British accent was heard,

"_She can't come to the phone right now, dear boy, I do say, leave her a message—" _

"_Jake, stop, let me finish it," _Harry heard more shuffling, and raised an eyebrow, _"Leave me a message, and please don't mind my moronic boyfriend, bye!"_

There was a beep and Harry decided that that was probably the signal for leaving a message. He didn't leave one, simply hung up and decided he would try again later. Muggles were _very_ strange, and that British accent that Jacob had attempted sounded completely terrible, _leave it to the American's to screw things up._

With nothing to do, Harry decided to go adventure around the town, "I'll be back later Snape,"

He didn't expect a reply, and didn't receive one. He grabbed a coat and left the house. He contemplated where he wanted to go, since he hardly knew where anything was around here. He only knew where the high school, that food mart, and his house was—everything else was a completely mystery. When he was a bit away from the house and traveling down the thin road surrounded by thick trees on each side, he thought, _Oh well, it's not fun unless you get lost._

"Hey," a voice came, Harry jumped from the suddenness of silence being interrupted and turned to face the owner of the voice, and to Harry's distaste, it was Edward Cullen, "Out for a walk? I could show you around if you'd like,"

Harry raised an eyebrow, "you're not stalking me are you?" and motioned with his head for Edward to walk with him; the vampire chuckled and shrugged, walking to be beside Harry so that their steps were in syn, "Because if you are I might just have to hex you,"

"Father told me," Edward smiled, looking down at the other, "I'm glad to see that _we're_ not the only estranged things out there. Where were you planning on heading?"

"Well, I tried calling my best friend Bella," Harry took note of the pause Edward gave in his steps, "but she's probably busy with other friends or something. I have no clue where I'm going, so maybe I'll take you up on that offer, if you don't mind wasting your whole day on me,"

"Never," Edward said a bit too quickly. His reply made Harry look up at him with a puzzled gaze, "I mean, there isn't much that can entertain someone like _me_ anymore, so I don't have anything better to do," that sounded just as bad, but Edward didn't feel like trying to correct himself because when Harry grinned at him he felt as if he didn't have to.

Emerald eyes flicked to the road they were walking down, no hint of a car or anyone nearby, "How long of a walk to you think it'll be until we reach somewhere," he shoved his hands in his pocket, why did Severus decide to buy a house in the middle of nowhere?...

"Well," Edward peered down at Harry, unsure of himself for a moment, "Do you trust me?"

That caught Harry off-guard, making him stop and turn to face the other, "Do you have a reason for me not to trust you?"

"Other than the reason that I'm not human, I don't think so,"

Harry's lips twitched as he wanted to smile, "then I guess you have my trust, what's with the sudden question though?"

"Follow me?" Edward held out his hand for the other to take,

Harry looked at the hand and then gave Edward a questioning glance,

"Come on, _trust me__,_" the husky voice of the other took the wizard by surprise.

"I hardly know you, hell, I _don't _know you," he was becoming suspecting, and he didn't like the suddenness of Edward kind tone and friendly hand, he wanted to demand the vampire's intentions and then reminded himself that he needed to stop doing that. He needed to stop suspecting the worst in others because of past experiences.

"I won't _eat_ you, I promise,"

Harry rolled his eyes and placed his hand into Edward. He gasped, in simply (and unreal) seconds he was thrown against Edwards back, who (when he felt Harry grasp onto him in the fastness of the action and squeak) dashed into the thick woods surrounding them at such unreal speed. Harry had to close his eyes and hide his face in Edward's shoulders because of the wind that was piercing at him.

Finally, it all stopped and Harry dropped from the vampires back with an intake of air. He glared at Edward and clutched at the front of his shirt where his beating heart had been racing, "Bloody hell, you bastard, warn a guy next time you plan on dragging him at top-vampire-speed into the woods! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"Sorry," chuckled Edward, "I just thought we'd get somewhere quicker if we traveled my way,"

"Heh," there was only an exasperated reply as Harry tried to slow his heart down.

Edward smiled in amusement, "I did all the running, what's got you so tired? Sit down somewhere so that you can catch your breath," worry invaded every limb and part of Edward's dead body, did he harm his mate in some way?

"I'm fine—but, where are we?"

Edward smiled and watched as Harry looked around. They were in the woods, of course, but it wasn't so thick and the cloudy sky dripped through the tall trees creating a bit of a gloom, "Nowhere particular, I just thought you might like the calmness of where I usually hunt,"

Harry stepped back, raising an arm in defense, "H-hunt?"

"Oh," Edward waved his hand, "No- no, that's not what I meant; this wasn't some evil plot to get you here so that I could eat you or anything. I'm not like that, remember?"

There was a nod from Harry who calmed down, his heart now racing as fast as it was before, "Oh right, the whole 'trying-to-be-normal' thing, sorry, It's not every day a vampire tries to talk to me, you know? I mean, I've been friends with a werewolf, but never a _vampire_,"

"Werewolf?" Edward wondered if Harry had run into one of the wolves on La Push.

Harry noticed his expression and laughed under his breath, "Yeah, but he's dead now so I haven't really got any abnormal companions, well, if you count Draco—he's a bit abnormal,"

"Draco? Is he one of your old friends from where you used to live?" Edward asked, wanting to know as much about his future mate as possible. Firstly though, he needed his mate to trust him. This was all so bothersome and was going to take an awful long time. He began to question exactly _how_ he was going to tell Harry he was his mate.

The pull he felt just being beside Harry was painful, he wanted to touch and _feel_ his mate, but he couldn't, that's not how things work in the real world. Good things come to those who wait, he listened as Harry sat on a fallen tree, Edward sat next to him, "Draco's a wizard too, and he just has this attitude to him that makes you question why he even exists. Like, when it's not just me and him he's a completely different person,"

"Do the two of you still stay in touch?" he was curious, the sorrow on Harry's face made him want to know exactly what him and Severus were doing here, what they were running from, and who they were hiding from.

Harry shook his head, "No. I wasn't even able to tell him goodbye, I wasn't able to tell any of my friends goodbye to be honest. But, I have this owl—it's how wizards send mail back and forth—and I sent him a letter, but Hedwig hasn't come back yet so I'm not even sure if he got it or not,"

"Oh. Well, I hope you hear back from him soon," Edward said honestly.

There was a long silence, Harry broke it by teasingly asking, "So, what's your past with Bella Swan?"

"What?" Edward looked horrified, what the hell made him ask such a question?

"Bella told me awhile back that you were biography partners last year, and when I mentions her earlier you paused—just like you did now, I was curious if you guys used to be friends, or something, rather than _just_ lab partners," the way he said it so bluntly, it sent a shiver down Edward's spine. Harry looked amazing, his hair shinning under the hidden sun, the dampness of the forest blending with his vivid green eyes, he looked almost innocent, _almost_.

The vampire shrugged, "We were lab partners,"

"Terrible liar, you are,"

A sigh, and then another reply came from Edward, "We were _friends_. Let's just say… she chose the other guy,"

"Jacob," he did it again, so bluntly so that it made Edward a bit upset, "I can't say that's ever happened to me before, I haven't had a single relationship in my short years of existing. There was this one girl though, Cho, she was like the Niagara Falls when she was kissing me though. That was an experience in itself,"

The topaz eyed vampire chuckled, which in return made Harry smile as if he accomplished something, "Bella wasn't _right_ for me, we're still friends though—even if we haven't had a full conversation since the breakup. I used to think she was my everything, that we were going to get married and I was going to change her,"

"Destiny has a way of screwing up, don't you think?"

"Completely," came a whispered reply, "but not entirely,"

Harry looked over with a puzzled brow, "What was that?" the vampire whispered it so quiet and quick that he didn't catch the last part,

"Nothing important,"

More awkward silence fell upon them, and then Harry blinked from his own mental thoughts when Edward pointed to the sky and said aloud, "What's that…?"

Harry squint his eyes and blinked, his head cocked to the side as he tried to focus on the swirling figure falling through the sky in ungraceful sweeps and swirls. His eyes widened when the figure got closer, _Hedwig_, he panicked, "she's hurt!"

"What?" Edward stood when his mate did, he didn't understand until the figure falling from the sky landed a few yards away from them in a heap of white (which didn't match the green moss that softened it's fall). He didn't have time to look back to Harry before he took off and kneeled beside the fallen bird. Edward was beside him in an instant, kneeling all the same and watching as Harry scooped the bird into his hands, "Is that your owl?"

"Yes," Harry said quickly, "she's hurt, I need to get her back to Severus, he's going to be so mad at me,"

Edward stopped his mate when he stood and turned to hurry back to his house, "My house is closer, we can take him there and Carlisle can take care of her,"

"But," the wizard shook his head, "but he's not a vet, he can't—"

"You'd be surprised, come on,"

There was a squawk which made Harry wince, _I'm so sorry, Hedwig, I'm going to get you fixed, don't worry._ He wondered why Hedwig was hurt in the first place, what happened? It certainly couldn't be good, and now his anxiety was skyrocketing through the roof, if something like this happened to Hedwig… could something have happened to Draco then too?

_No,_ he shook his head once more, his black hair shifting with his movements, _No, I'm probably just overreacting. Everything's going to be fine, everything's going to be okay. _

_oOoOoOo_

"Edward! Harry!" the loudness and excitement that came from the voice made Harry wince and pull Hedwig closer to his chest so that she wouldn't become too startled. When Alice came down the steps and saw the two she gasped and rushed over to Harry, "What happened?"

"Alice," Edward said to his sister, "Harry's owl is hurt, can you go get Carlisle for us please?"

Alice nodded and even though she was in a hurry, Harry noted, she was still bloody skipping. Maybe it was just a habit, but it was still odd. Harry looked down at Hedwig, his face drained of all colour. He felt a hand press against his back and knew it was Edward's attempt to comfort him and therefore didn't shove it away… he actually felt calmer now.

"Edward, what's wrong….?" Carlisle asked in the process of coming down the stairs, "Alice said you needed help and that Harry was with you—oh, oh dear, what happened?"

"I don't know, she just… she fell out of the sky as she was flying home and she,"

Unable to talk any further, Edward took his place, "I think she was a few broken bones, Carlisle, I know you don't usually treat to animals, but could you check on her, please…?"

Carlisle was hesitant to refuse, he didn't know the first thing about animals, let alone their bones—especially birds. He figured, with the look on Harry's face and the pleading eyes of Edward, that it wouldn't be too much trouble to examine her. He glided over to Harry, gently pulling her from Harry's arms into his, "I'll take her downstairs, you two stay here,"

"Wait—"

Edward pulled Harry back from Carlisle as his father left their sight, "She's in good hands, I promise,"

"She's all I have left," he whispered, "I—"

"Are you hungry?"

"What?" Harry asked in astonishment. Did he seriously just ask if he were hungry? In the middle of a crisis Edward just asked if he were bloody hungry. They were vampires, did they even have any damned food, feeling insulted and slightly mocked Harry added, "Why the bloody hell would you think I'm hungry?"

"Well, I remember for comfort Bella used to eat and," Edward didn't know if he should have said the next part but, "I can read minds… but I can't read yours and I'm not able to tell _what_ you are half the time,"

"Thank Severus for those _Occlumency_ lessons then;" Harry breathed in irritation, "I wouldn't want a vampire lurking in my mind anyway, but to answer your question: no. I'm not hungry, thanks for the concern though but I'd rather focus on my bird, rather than my stomach,"

"Worrying won't fix anything,"

A growl left Harry's throat and out of his lips, "Don't you think I know that?"

"Sorry," Edward said, hoping he saved himself from pissing his mate off any more than he's already done in the past five minutes, "I was only trying to help, alright?"

Another voice entered their world, which brought them to the realization of their surroundings, "Edward darling, is what Alice said true? Is Harry here?"

"Yes," the vampire gave a human eye roll, "Esme, there was an emergency,"

A beautiful women into the room, and that's when Harry not only noticed the beautiful woman but the just as breathtaking home he was in. Walls, glass windowed walls surrounded him—so much for privacy, and on the walls that weren't large windows, there were paintings, beautiful paintings. He gathered that he was probably in their living room, white furniture that made him nervous to even be around in fear of putting a stain on it, and a piano against one of the walls, _who has the musical talent? _He ignored what Edward and she were talking about until she held her hand out for him to take,

"Hello sweetheart, I'm Esme, the mother of the home," she was smiling, her white teeth sparkling unrealistically, "My husband works wonders, I'm sure you're owl is going to be alright in no time. It's a pleasure to meet you; both Alice and Carlisle have told me a lot about you and your father,"

Her beauty and tone were enough to make Harry melt in the yearning he felt for his own mother. Esme looked gentle and defending at the same time. He remembered back to the conversation he was having with Jessica Stanley,

"_I don't think she can have kids," _

His gaze softened, and he gently grabbed the motherly vampire's hand and shook it, the feeling that surged through him made him weak in the knees, _she can't have children, the feeling that must bring her that she will never in her existence be able to bear a child,_ "It's a pleasure to meet you, ma'am, I hope you don't mind my sudden invasion of your home,"

"Oh," Esme said, smiling even wider at the politeness of her son's mate, "It's our pleasure, you're welcomed here anytime,"

Alice came in behind her mother, pulling Harry into an awkward hug with a protest from Edward and a shocked look from the only breathing person in the house, "Harry, Rosalie, Emmett, and Jasper are going to be home soon, will you be staying for dinner?"

"Oh," Harry instantly flushed and waved his hands, "I really shouldn't, I—"

"Don't be silly," Esme chimed, "Carlisle is going to be awhile anyway, so why don't you stay for dinner and then you can check on your bird. Besides, it's not every day I get to cook dinner for someone,"

Edward smiled and said to Harry, "Mom loves cooking, but she never gets the chance to do it since we're, well, you know,"

"Vampires," Harry waved, "I know. I'll stay for dinner, and so I can meet the rest of your family,"

Esme and Alice bother cheered, "Excellent, we'll get started on supper right away!"

Not long from then, Alice was making a mess of herself with certain bakery powder and spices, which only caused Harry laugh and blue when she complimented that he was cute when he laughed. Esme was explaining something about using two eggs instead of one because of the texture, he really wasn't paying much attention and instead tried to visualize himself with his mother… He never experienced something like this with Severus; Snape was more of a serious type of parent than what Esme had been.

"Is something wrong?" Edward asked when he noticed Harry's dazed eyes.

"No, I was just wondering how my life would have been if my mother was alive," it was quiet enough so that only Edward could hear, the other two vampires were chatting too loudly to themselves to hear him anyway, "I mean, I never really had a mom except for Draco's mother, and Mrs. Weasley,"

"I'm sorry," the tall vampire frowned, "If it means anything, Esme's always here and if you need some company you know where to find her,"

Harry smiled a bit, "Thanks but… why are you all being so nice to me, I mean, you hardly know me and I'm no different from the others you choose to ignore at school…"

Edward was tempted to say, _because you're my mate and I already love you more than you could imagine,_ but he couldn't say such a thing, that'd just make Harry run away and never return. No, Edward was going to have to earn Harry's trust, "You're different,"

Harry was wondering why he was at the Cullen's house in the first place, "_different_,"

The whisper somehow sounded as if it was Harry laughing at him, but he didn't bother to push it any further than just a whisper that the boy let out. Pausing to look towards the front entrance of the Cullen home, Edward said, "the others are home, try not to mind Rosalie too much,"

"I heard that!" a sharp voice, which reminded Harry of Mrs. Weasley's howlers, "How dare you speak ill of me to our guests, Edward, I'm disappointed,"

Harry blinked when a gorgeous blond came into the kitchen and held her hand out for him to take, her gesture seemed nice and thoughtful, but the ill and irate look on her face suggested otherwise, "Nice to meet you," Harry told her. He looked over her shoulder to see Jasper being playfully shoved by a _much_ larger vampire. Rosalie moved to the side and the bulky vampire childishly made his way over to Harry.

He felt intimidated, that's for sure, "Nice to meet you, the name's Emmett,"

"Ah, try not to let him scare you too much, he's a big teddy bear," Edward said, and Harry ceased being tense for the moment, still, being around a bunch of blood-suckers really made him feel uneasy.

Jasper made his way over and patted Harry's shoulder, "I'm Jasper, as you know, how nice of you to join us for _supper_," the caused a barking laugh to come from Emmett, and Harry could only manage a sheepish smile that held a bit of nervousness in it, Edward nudge him with a smile and said,

"He's kidding, I hope you know,"

"I know…" Harry tried to smile back as he replied.

There was the sound of a throat clearing, and they all turned towards where it had come from, Harry's expression dropped when he saw the horrid look on Dr. Cullen's face, and the next words made his whole world come crashing down, "I have some bad news,"

* * *

_And there we have that, I don't think the length of this chapter measured up to the last, but in the very least this is where I wanted to cut it off. I hope you enjoyed, and Harry and Edward shall be getting closer soon, and then much bigger events will begin to happen so please, stay tuned. Also, I'm going to suggest my new story again, because I can and my life is crap, but anyway, I have a new Edward/Harry story, and I will be updating that soon too, so if you'd like to read that too you may, no pressure! x  
_


	5. Chapter 5

I must apologies for the delayed update; and I'm sorry that this chapter is slightly shorter than the others. Let me firstly say I have a good excuse. I won't go into extreme details with you, because it's personal and isn't the place for such things, but, it involved legal matters and drama that sent me into a world of chaos. Story short, I'm not longer friends with the backstabbing idiot who brought all this trouble onto me, and everything is situated and I can present to you the fifth chapter of this story.

_**Thank you**__, so much,_ you don't know how much I adored all of your reviews, and for the simple reason that your reviews were lovely I decided not to go with my original idea; which was to kill Hedwig. SO, no worries because I've kept her alive and I have figured out another way to bring future events into play (Hedwig was supposed to foreshadow them). Please, enjoy this story and thank you for being patient!

**Transparent Fall:** Chapter Five

There was the sound of a throat clearing, and they all turned towards where it had come from, Harry's expression dropped when he saw the horrid look on Dr. Cullen's face, and the next words made his whole world come crashing down, "I have some bad news,"

"Bad news…?" Harry demanded, his brow narrowing, "What do you mean _bad news?_"

Silence enveloped the family and the wizard, Carlisle realised he may have made Harry worry about the health of his owl by saying that, he looked down at the short boy and went on to explain, "Hedwig is fine, I assure you,"

"Oh," there was a relieved breath.

"What's the bed news then?" asked Edward from beside Harry, he was relieved to know his mate's pet was alright, "If she's okay…"

"Right," Carlisle nodded and gave a humanly sigh as he went on to explain, "She's alive and well, but I'm afraid there's a chance she may never fly again, her wings were severely damaged, she won't be able to function them correctly in the future,"

Devastation and guilt fell upon Harry like a wave, his beautiful owl would never be able to fly again, and it was his entire fault because he wanted to lash out at Severus by sending Draco a letter. Shaking slightly, Edward had to place a supporting hand on the teenager's shoulder to make sure he wouldn't fall, "She won't be able to fly… but that's… that's the one thing she loved doing,"

"Oh, Harry," Esme said softly from across the kitchen and was over to the boy in a matter of seconds, "I'm sorry, I truly am, but at least she's safe and alive,"

Shaking his head, Harry asked, "Where is she now…?"

Carlisle frowned, "I've made her a temporary bed, she'll need to stay here for a few days under my observation but you'll be able to take her home after that. She's resting now, she's had a long day,"

"Alright," Harry whispered, rubbing his left arm with his right, "I think I'd be best if I went home now, if you wouldn't mind…?"

Esme gave a soft and soothing smile, "Of course, dinner can be postponed for another day,"

"You're always welcomed here," said Alice from behind him with a just as comforting voice as her mother, "do you need a ride home?"

Harry shrugged and looked up to Edward, "If you wouldn't mind, I'd appreciate that,"

He said goodbye to the rest of the Cullen family and Edward walked with him to his Volvo.

The ride to Harry's house was quiet and uneasy, it took Edward's voice to bring Harry from the dark thoughts that floated around his mind involving the past events of today, "She's going to be fine, you know? Carlisle is a great doctor,"

"She's not going to be alright," he snapped in return, "she's never going to fly again,"

Edward looked over, hardly paying attention to the road in front of him, "Carlisle said that it was only a _chance_, she could fly again one day,"

"Luck was never really on my side before," Harry whispered, "I highly doubt it'll be on my side for this, I ruined my own bird's chances at flight, and all because I was selfish and acted on stupid anger,"

"You're only human; you're bound to make mistakes…"

A snort came from the wizard, "a vampire giving me advice on being human,"

"I was human once too, you know," it came off as a strong justification, "Just because I'm a vampire now doesn't mean I didn't have a fully functioning heart when I was human,"

Harry instantly felt guilt-ridden for judging the man, "I'm sorry, I guess you're right. It isn't your fault you're the way you are… I just, I'm upset and tired, that's all,"

"I understand," the car slowed to a stop outside of Harry's home, "this is it,"

"Thanks for the ride," Harry thanked softly, "I'll see you at school Monday?"

There was a nod, and just as Harry was about to close the car door Edward asked, "Do you, well, want to sit with us at lunch?"

"Oh," there was a long pause, "I usually sit with Bella…"

"That's fine," Edward recovered, "don't worry about it,"

Harry smiled though, which caught the vampire by surprise and made his stomach flip, "Goodnight, Edward,"

"Goodnight, Harry," the door was then closed, and Edward watched his mate retreat into the beautiful ordinary home before he drove off back to his own house.

When Harry closed the front door he was greeted by a busy Severus in the kitchen, he was surprised when the older man lifted his head to look at the smaller wizard, "I see that Cullen boy dropped you off,"

"Yeah," came an awkward reply, "he showed me around town a bit," a downright lie and he knew it, he couldn't let Severus know about Hedwig, it would only cause more stress and unwanted drama that Harry didn't want any part of. He was upset enough knowing that he caused his own bird harm, he didn't want Severus to be crossed at him, "I'm going to bed, it's been a long day,"

"Alright," said Severus in reply, and nothing else was said between the two as Harry exited the room and went upstairs to fall graciously onto his bed and thankfully dream of nothing.

_Monday,_

"You know, don't you?" Harry asked Bella the next day when they met each other in the hall and headed to lunch together, "about the Cullens, I mean,"

There was a pause in Bella's steps, but she quickly fixed her composure, "What'd you mean?"

"Edward explained to me about your past, if what he says is true that means he was once interested in you—which means you know about him and the rest of the Cullens, but you chose Jacob instead," Harry wasn't stupid, he spent the whole night putting two-and-two together and realised the obviousness of it all, "I understand that you weren't allowed to tell me, so I'm not upset with you,"

"How did you find out?" she asked, her eyebrow rising in shock and bemusement, "did something happen?"

Harry shrugged, "Nothing really," he lied once more, "but I found out, I mean, and I wasn't _that_ hard,"

"A bit obvious, isn't it?" Bella asked with a chuckle, which in return Harry laughed with her as they entered the cafeteria, "but I didn't _choose_ Jacob over Edward, where did you get that?"

With their food, they sat down at the empty round table, the others hadn't arrived yet, they were a bit early, Harry gave a puzzled look, "that's what Edward told me,"

Bella shook her head, "No, Edward broke up with _me_; I don't hold it against him because it was obvious that I wasn't his mate. It was more of a mutual agreement,"

"Oh, I wonder why he lied,"

A suspicious look flashed across Bella's face but vanished as she carelessly shrugged, "It's hard to tell with that man, he's really confusing sometimes. We agreed that we wasn't meant to be with me and I wasn't going to force him to suffer when someone else belonged to his heart—no matter if he met them yet or not,"

"That's very mature of you," Harry teased, and received a giggle from his best friend.

"I try," she said and then looked past Harry's shoulder, "speak of the devil,"

Harry looked at Bella in mild interest at what she meant but was answered when he looked up to the man who was now standing beside him. It was Edward, and he smiled softly to Bella who smiled back in return, "Hello, Bella, how's everything going?"

"Good, how's everything with you?"

"Fine," Edward replied and then his eyes shifted to Harry, "Carlisle said that you should come over for dinner tonight, Hedwig's condition's gotten better since Saturday,"

When Harry nodded the vampire left, and green eyes met the brown eyes of Bella, her expression was muddled as she looked at her friend and asked, "Hedwig? What was all that about…?"

"A v_ery_ long story," Harry stopped talking when Jessica and the rest of their 'friends' joined them, "I'll tell you later," he mouthed to Bella, who nodded with a satisfied smile.

"You wouldn't believe the rumors going around about Rebekah Lewis," Harry nearly rolled his eyes at Jessica's horrid voice and unconsciously looked to the Cullen table as the girl rambled on about today's victim of gossip.

When he saw Alice, Jasper, and Edward looking at him he wanted to feel at least a _bit_ freaked out, but something inside of him calmed and he felt okay. His heart jumped when Alice smiled happily at him and then waved. The girl was so graceful and harmless to be a vampire, and that's when it clicked—they weren't violent and deathly, if anything they were just as human as the rest of the students here at Forks High, but their meal consisted of animals and their hearts weren't beating…

"Don't you agree, Harry?"

The addressed boy turned back to look at Jessica who asked him the question and he flushed, feeling as though he was caught looking at the beautiful family, "Huh? Oh, yes, of course,"

A happy smile of triumph nearly split the annoying woman's face in half, "I thought you'd agree, I was hoping you wouldn't have one of those silly opinions like the rest of this stupid school has,"

Harry hadn't a clue what the girl was fucking talking about, and nor did he care. His eyes fell onto his best friend, Bella, and she was grinning at him knowingly—and that only made him flush a deeper red. _I'm not a creeper, Bella, stop looking at me like that! _He thought, but they went unheard in his head.

OOoOoOo

Chemistry came around and Harry was once again sitting next to Edward, other students were yapping and going on about useless drama or stupid 'inside' jokes, Severus was scowling and scolding the children and listed off their assignment for the afternoon, the class silenced themselves and listened quietly to Severus (whom they learned now would give them a detention without a second chance).

"Today you and a partner are going to produce the gas that subsequently makes bread rise," they students scanned the room, looking to their friends whom they would be partnering up with, Harry felt nervous for a moment—who would he partner up with? "You will be given a list of items you will be using, and will be given one balloon, a disposable bottle, yeast, warm water, and sugar,"

It seemed rather easy, it wasn't something they usually did in potions, but how hard could it be to mix water, yeast, and sugar with the correct measurements? Harry paled, _measurements, _that's what always screwed him up in potions. A sigh of displeasure left his lips and he hadn't noticed the other students getting standing from their seats and finding their partners and getting started on their projects.

He also hadn't noticed until just now that Edward had spoken to him, he looked over to the other with an embarrassed look, "I'm sorry, what were you saying?"

"I asked if you wanted to be my partner. Everyone else is taken," Edward was smiling only slightly, almost a bit nervously, and Harry blinked.

"Sure, that sounds good," he smiled and moved his chair closer to Edward's, "Let's get started,"

Edward nodded, "I've done this experiment numerous times, obviously, so it won't be that hard, don't worry,"

A knowing laugh escaped the lips of Harry, who nodded, "Alright, what do we need?"

"I'll let you get the balloon, bottle, and dry yeast. I'll get the cup of water and sugar," Edward said, standing from his chair and looking to Harry for his 'okay'.

"Okay," Harry nodded, and stood from his seat also.

They collected their needed items and were sitting beside each other not long after. Harry's brow scrunched in confusion as he read the paper in front of him, "I don't understand what we have to do,"

Edward chuckled, "It's easy, here I'll show you," he took the teaspoon of sugar and mixed it with the water, "and then you'll need to mix the yeast, which helps bread rise when you bake it, and mix it with the water and sugar,"

"Alright, I get that much, but…"

"It's going to create a gas that will make this balloon," the vampire held up a blue coloured balloon with a smile, "inflate,"

"That's cool," the wizard said honestly, "Then, you pour the mixed contents into the plastic bottle with this funnel, and we're going to stretch the balloon over the top part,"

"That's it…? That wasn't hard at all,"

Edward nodded happily, loving the feeling of teaching his mate and being close to him at the moment, "and then we'll sit it here in the middle of the table and wait twenty minutes and record the reaction,"

_What are we supposed to do for twenty minutes?_

They sat together for at least ten minutes before Edward decided to speak, "What's your favorite color?"

"Huh?" startled, Harry looked to Edward as if he were crazy. He shrugged and answered, "I suppose it's green, why?"

"Just trying to get to know you a bit better," Edward explained casually, "is that such a crime?"

"No," the raven haired teenager shook his head, "Not really, but why would you want to get to know me…?"

Edward avoided eye contact, "I thought that's what you do when you want to be friends with someone,"

"You—" Harry was taken aback, "You want to be my friend?"

"Why not…? It's not often someone knows my secret, the only people I communicate with are my family, so I thought it be nice to have someone different to talk to, someone who doesn't know every bit of detail about me," he confessed earnestly.

There was a nod from the smaller teen, "Alright, my turn to ask questions then, how old are you…?"

"Seventeen,"

There was mocking chuckle, "Okay, how _long_ have you been seventeen,"

"Awhile, If you want an accurate answer I'd say I'm about ninety-one years old," he whispered it so that only Harry would be the only one to hear, "what's the date of your birthday?"

"July 31st," Harry answered, "How'd you… die…?" he whispered the last word not only quietly but softly, hoping it wouldn't offend the other too much.

"Spanish influenza, Carlisle saved me before it actually killed me," there was a shriek from across the room and Edward froze in fear that he may have been heard but was relieved to know it was just from a girl screaming when water spilled onto her dress.

Harry didn't know why he was going along with this 'questions and answers' game, but he supposed they had a whole twenty minutes to kill, why not learn a bit about each other. It was Edward's turn to ask, and he did,

"Who are your real parents?"

It took Harry by surprise, but it hadn't affected him as much as it usually had, "James and Lily Potter," he decided to take this moment to ask, "Why'd you lie about you and Bella? You weren't _just_ friends,"

"I didn't think it was an important detail," Edward said with a shrug, "how'd your parents die?"

It made him freeze, but he answered nonetheless, "A man killed them when I was only a baby,"

"I'm sorry," Edward looked to him with a solemn gaze.

"I was a baby," Harry shrugged to him just as he had previously, "It's nothing," that was a lie, even if Edward couldn't read his mind entirely he could read the boy's eyes easily, he listened to his mate's next question, "have you… have you ever wanted children before?"

"I wouldn't mind it," Edward answered in a whispered breath, "but in my current position I'm not eligible for children,"

"I'm Sorry,"

"It's fine," the smile that crossed the vampire's lips assured Harry he was telling the truth regardless of the bitterness in his tone, "What's your favorite place to be?"

"Hogwarts, my old school," replied the short wizard, "and yours?"

The vampire was tempted to say that his favorite place was right here, right beside his mate—but he knew that wouldn't be the wisest thing to do at the moment, "Favorite flower,"

"What?" it took him aback, the sudden change in question topics, "I suppose lilies, you?"

"Tulips," they weren't paying attention to their experiment anymore, more interested and engaged in their little game of 'getting to know each other' more than anything else going on in the room. Edward looked at his wizard mate, and that's all he saw, "Do you like to read?"

_Tulips? That's a bit strange for his character, but I suppose it not that bad,_ Harry thought, "Not so much, it depends on what kind of book it is. My friend Hermione loves to read though, she's practically a book herself… What kind of music do you like?"

"Classical," this made Harry snort in laugher, and Edward grinned widely, "What's so funny?"

"It's only typical that you like classical music," Harry sighed once he was done laughed and waited for Edward to retort with something due to his semi insult,

"And what about you, what kind of music are you interested in?"

"I've never had time for music, and I like the Twisted Sisters though," Harry noticed the confused look Edward gave him and he laughed, "They're a wizard band, you wouldn't know about them. Do you play any instruments?"

Edward nodded, "Just the piano, I could play for you one day," he regretted it as soon as it came from his mouth, who offered to play the piano for a complete stranger who had been the same gender, for Christ's sake! "Uhm… I think twenty minutes is up—we should probably record our data,"

"Right," Harry nodded and turned to face the bottle and balloon, he blinked in surprise—the balloon actually inflated. He grabbed his pencil (which felt much different than a quill) and began to scribble down the results, "and I think I'd like that…"

"What?" Edward was taken by surprise at the boy's sudden words.

"I mean, you offered to play for me sometime," Harry continued to look at his paper while Edward looked at him with astonishment, "I think I'd really like for someone to play the piano for me, people don't offer something like that every day, you know?"

The unnatural heat soaring through Edward made him explode with contentment and accomplishment. Satisfaction that he hadn't scared his mate away and actually learned something made him the happiest vampire in a million mile radius. "Alright, maybe tonight… if you stay for dinner,"

"Of course, I'm sure your mum would love for me to stay so she could cook," Harry smiled and looked to Edward from the corner of his eyes, "As long as I'm not intruding on anything…"

"You heard Esme, you're welcome to come whenever you wish, besides, Carlisle already said you should come over tonight to check on Hedwig… I saw her last night, she's doing wonderful,"

That made Harry extremely happy, happier about the situation than he was before, "I'll meet you outside, if you don't mind giving me a lift—"

"Not at all," Edward smiled in return, and the buzzing noise signaling for them to clean up with experiment and leave for their next class broke their conversation and they parted ways. Edward felt like a kid who just received candy on a Christmas day. Things may not have been perfect yet between him and his mate but they were improving and that was more than he could ask for.

A sudden thought haunted him though… Alice's vision hadn't changed yet, his death date was arriving soon, and it only pushed a thousand pound bag of worry and dread onto him. It was a haunting thing to think of, dying just as he met the person of his dreams, the single person that could bring warmth and happiness to him with just one conversation. That was something special, something he wasn't willing to give up—not even for life.

OOoOoOo

"There you are, I was wondering when you'd be coming out," Edward said as he pushed himself from the hood of his Volvo.

Harry playfully slapped his forearm and rounded the car to be on the passenger side, "I'm sorry I don't have supersonic speed like you do, I walk at a _slow_ pace,"

"Touché," Edward grinned and they both climbed into the car, "did you say goodbye to that _best friend_ of yours?"

"Yeah," Harry said nodding, "are you sure your family won't mind that I'm coming…?"

"It'll be fine, I told you, Carlisle suggested it," Edward tried to assure as they pulled from the parking lot of the school. Harry couldn't help but shiver when he noticed all the curious and odd looks they had received from the other students, _I suppose it's not every day someone leaves with a Cullen, hm?_

They arrived to the beautiful home and Harry was greeted by Alice with a hug that had been more of a tackle when they entered the house. Edward looked at his sister and scowled, "don't suffocate him, Al',"

"Sorry, I'm just so excited you're visiting Harry!" her niceness and forwardness took Harry by surprise, he was strangely reminded of Luna when the pixie like vampire spoke to him with that dreamy voice, "What should we make for dinner? Esme suggested Italian, but I suggested Chinese,"

"Uhm," Harry flushed nervously, he didn't mean to cause such a fuss, he was only one person, "you don't have to make me anything for dinner, I can just—"

"Don't be silly," said Esme walking into the room, wiping her hands with a damp wash cloth, "It isn't often we get to cook for people we like, so which would you like; Italian or Chinese?"

"Italian, thank you," Harry replied, knowing it was a battle he'd already lost.

Esme smiled happily and Alice pouted, the motherly vampire turned to go back into the kitchen with Alice following behind her, over her shoulder Esme said to Edward, "your father is downstairs waiting on the two of you; whenever you're ready you may go down,"

"Would you like to go down?" Edward asked gently, looking down at the other.

"Sure, why not," Harry replied and the two of them headed to basement like room where there appeared to be a small infirmary of some kind—he noted that the Cullen's must have been extremely rich to have this much nice equipment in their home, not to mention the cars that Jasper, Alice, and Edward all brought to school half the time.

There was a squawk that made Harry's head twist, trying to find where it had been coming from. Edward chuckled and dragged his mate over to the small basket like area where Hedwig had been sitting. Harry gasped at the sight of the beautiful bird. Her wings were pinned to her back in light bandages that posed as a cast. She stood from her sitting position and balanced herself from foot to foot in excitement at seeing Harry.

"Hey girl," Harry smiled and ran his hand over her head gently, which she pushed back against him with her eyes closed happily, "I'm sorry, Hedwig, I wish I never sent you with that letter,"

Hedwig nipped Harry's hand very gently with her beak, signaling that she all was forgiven and she hadn't blamed him for anything that happened. Harry bitterly smiled down at the bird, Hedwig might have forgiven him, but he certainly couldn't forgive himself.

"She's a beautiful owl," Edward whispered beside him, causing the smaller male to jump.

"I know," Harry sighed peacefully, "she's all I have right now, aside from Severus,"

Edward desperately wanted to say that he was there for him, that Harry also had him and the rest of his family if he ever needed support, but he couldn't bring himself to say it, and he regretted not saying anything later on when he had the chance, "She's very lucky to have you,"

"Yeah, more like…" Harry smiled and petted Hedwig once more, "I'm the lucky one,"

After Harry had finished petting the bird and she became a bit irritated with all the attention the two of them traveled back upstairs where a wonderful smell flowed around the house, and Edward couldn't help but chuckle when Harry's stomach rumbled.

Harry couldn't help but smile when he saw the Cullen family gathered in the kitchen, laughing and carrying on. Jasper and Emmett were engaged in a food fight while Esme was scolding them to stop and leave the food alone. Carlisle was doubled over and receiving glares from his wife who was begging for his help. Alice and Rosalie were holding onto each other as they laughed.

Suddenly, Edward was slapped in the face with a handful of Alfredo noodles by Jasper, who simply grinned at his brother and growl when Emmett squirted ketchup onto the blonde vampire's clothes. Edward used his arm to rid himself of the pasta and grabbed a handful of salad that had been covered in red dressing and flung it to the empath.

Harry watched in amazement, _so much for eating_, and laughed when Jasper grabbed onto Edward but they both when sliding to the floor due to the contents that had been scattered across the kitchen. Harry grabbed his stomach as Emmett let out a roar of laughter and Rosalie was hit with a piece of cake that Esme baked for desert by Alice. The beautiful blond looked furious.

"Did you just get cake in my hair," demanded the woman, and Alice gave an innocent shrug with a very guilty looking grin spread across her face, "You bitch,"

The two female vampires began to engage in their own battle with food. Harry wondered if this had been how it always was with the Cullen's.

Harry gasped when a piece of cake landed onto his face, covering his glasses with icing. He brought his hands up to his face and wiped them off best he could and looked for the suspect who had attacked him. With no surprise he saw that it had been Edward. Harry glared as Edward laughed, pointing to him lazily. With slow steps Harry moved to the bowl of pudding sitting on the counter, "It's on, Cullen,"

After a long and quite messy battle they all cleaned themselves off with a wet cloth and due to Esme's upset demand they cleaned the kitchen so that it was clean once more. Carlisle walked into the living room away from the mess that was once his kitchen, laughter erupting from his throat as he did so.

"Here," Edward offered the wet cloth, "You've got icing all in your hair,"

There was a chuckle, and Harry pouted as he took the cloth and proceeded to wipe his face and arms, "I can't believe you,"

"It's all fun and games," Jasper piped from across the room and earned a giggle from his small mate beside him, who was busy wiping off salad dressing from his cheek.

Rosalie was huffing, upset that her beauty was interrupted by a childish food fight. Emmett was trying to hold back laughter so he wouldn't make her anymore upset than she already was.

Edward looked to the clock on the wall, "It's getting late, rain check on that piano?"

"Yeah," Harry said, regaining his composure, "Yeah, of course,"

* * *

_To anyone that has done that experiement with the yeast and balloons (I had to do it last year of chemistry, probably the only thing I passed while taking that horrid class), you will recieve brownie points! ;) Anyway, hope that wasn't too bad, I've got a lot of shit on my plate this month that I need to handle, especially all this legal shit that my friend has forced upon me. Anyway, we get a bit closer to Edward and Harry's relationship... Next chapter will bring forth confessions and Jacob Black- not only will Jacob be introduce, but so will Draco and the explanation behind Hedwig's current state! Drama unfolds, more information about the war is given, and plot developes- BIG TIME. It's going to be a long chapter, I promise, because you deserve it! :)_


End file.
